Lib Dems Persuade County Council to Totally Oppose Police Merger

1.21.29pm GMT Fri 16th Dec 2005

At Thursday's meeting of Bedfordshire County Council Lib Dem leader Cllr Peter Blaine successfully proposed an amendment committing the Council to total opposition to government plans to merge Bedfordshire Police with neighbouring forces.

The ruling Conservative Group had put down a motion expressing "grave concern about the process and speed" with which the government are pursuing the amalgamation of police forces. The Lib Dem amendment, which was accepted, makes clear the County Council's opposition to any merger of the Bedfordshire force. The Lib Dem led Luton Borough Council had previously called on the Home Secretary to abandon the government's plans, not to remove local accountability and keep policing local.

Peter Blaine told the County Council that they needed clearly to defend our police force in Bedfordshire. He adds: "there is now clear democratically-expressed opposition to the government's merger plans throughout the area covered by Bedfordshire Police. Any decision by the Home Secretary to go ahead with taking away our local police force would have no democratic legitimacy whatsoever, would be costly to Council Tax payers and would prejudice sensitive local policing whose effectiveness we need to improve, not make worse by diverting attention to reorganisations which can only result in remote and ineffective management."