Lancashire police merger may be revived

10:59am Tuesday 6th May 2008

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By Peter Magill »

MERGERS of police forces could soon be back on the agenda, a police chief has warned.

Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke proposed combining Lancashire and Cumbria county police forces in 2005.

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But the scheme was axed 12 months later after Lancashire and Cumbria failed to agree on how their different council tax precepts could be dealt with.

But Sir Norman Bettison, speaking at a House of Commons' home affairs select committee meeting, has admitted that future mergers in England and Wales to create larger forces could be inevitable'.

The West Yorkshire chief constable believes that just one grave error by a force in the fight against crime could trigger renewed calls to revive the idea of larger strategic police forces, incorporating vast geographic areas.

One of the key drivers behind the proposed mergers of Lancashire and Cumbria was to create a force that was better able to tackle serious and organised crime such as terrorism.

Sir Norman, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) head of future developments within the service, said: "It will be events that bring this back to the agenda. It will be the failing of a force to do what is required in the 21st century that will cause people to ask if it has the capacity to meet those demands."

Critics fear that huge metropolitan forces will harm local policing - leading to more small stations closing.

But ACPO chiefs argue that larger forces would help to prevent neighbourhood officers from being seconded for strategic operations, allowing them greater freedom to concentrate on local priorities instead.