11/04/2006

Police mergers approved

Controversial plans to merge several police forces are to go ahead, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has announced.

The new so-called "superforces" will be created in East Anglia, the Midlands, South East and Yorkshire and Humber.

Mr Clarke said that he expected the mergers to begin in the autumn, with the new forces eventually coming into operation on April 1, 2008.

Local forces and police authorities will have until August 11 to submit any objections.

Concerns have been raised about the cost of the mergers.

The government believes that larger police forces will be more efficient than smaller ones. However, critics of the proposals have pointed out that the largest police force in the UK, the Metropolitan Police, is also the worst performing.

The forces which will merge are:
  • Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire
  • Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire
  • Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk
  • Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire
  • Surrey and Sussex
Local forces and police authorities will have until August 11 to submit any objections.

(KMcA)

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