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Police Merger Abandoned
I am delighted that the Whitehall bureaucrats appear finally to have seen sense about the forced merger of police forces.
It’s just a shame it took so long and involved such a waste of Suffolk taxpayers’ money.
Under the proposals Suffolk Constabulary was to be forceably merged with forces in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. Of course in the modern world, with the threats we face from terrorism and organised crime, forces should work closely together. BUT this is already happening and can continue to happen WITHOUT creating one colossal regional quango police force.
As a Suffolk MP I have opposed the merger of police forces from the outset and met with the Home Office Minister responsible to express the strong views of my constituents in our part of Suffolk.
I asked local people what they thought of the issue through my online survey website, www.telldavidruffley.com. I got an overwhelming response: more than 95% of the 650 people who gave me their views were opposed to the merger and wanted to see Suffolk Constabulary remain independent.
The decision to now abandon the forced merger of police forces shows that strong opposition from local people can make a difference.
I just hope that this is the last we have heard of this unpopular and unwarranted change to the way Suffolk is policed.
Police regionalisation would be a disaster. It would distract the police from doing their jobs, waste money and waste police time that should be properly dedicated to detecting and tackling crime.
We should concentrate on finding other ways of strengthening the fight against crime, by freeing the police from paperwork so they can actually do their job.
Reject regionalisation and give power back to local people. Make the Chief Constable accountable to the local community. Let’s modernise the police service and relate pay to performance so the public know they are getting an efficient police force.
The public rejected regional government in the North East referendum. But the obsession with regional empire-building has continued. We’ve already been given unelected regional assemblies, then regionalised fire control room services.
Regionalism is bound to be remote from local communities and their needs. Power should rest with local communities and their elected representatives, not with a remote, new tier of politicians and bureaucrats.
We have too many politicians and bureaucrats as it is - I’m sure you agree.
I hope that this decision shows the Government are now listening to local people who have simply had enough of power being removed from local communities.