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Bury Free Press, 26 September 2005 |
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Suffolk's Chief Constable has pledged to maintain local policing and fight for Suffolk's fair share of finance as the county faces being amalgamated with neighbouring forces. |
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After a meeting with the Home Secretary, Alistair McWhirter said he and the Suffolk Police Authority had three months to decide upon a preferred combination for a strategic force. |
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The HMI report, Closing the Gap, published on Friday, recommended that the 43 forces in the UK should be streamlined, with each force having a minium of 4,500 officers – Suffolk has 1,300, Norfolk 1,500 and Cambridgeshire 1,450. |
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Mr McWhirter said Bury St Edmunds would continue to be policed from a basic command unit in the western area as happens now. |
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"Nothing would change," he said. |
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It would be the back-up services and administration that would be most affected. |
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A combined three-counties force would be similar to that in Northumbria and would cost less. |
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He said he would want to see any savings invested into the front line. |
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"I want to ensure that Suffolk gets its fair share. The difficulty with merging is that money could be pushed to where it is most needed and if Suffolk is the safest county we may not see that money," he said. |
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A combined force of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire would be preferable to a 'monolithic' force which also included Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex – this would be 'too far from the people'. |
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Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley has attacked the possible merger and written to Home Secretary Charles Clarke. |
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"Under these proposals we are set to lose our own local police force and chief to be instead replaced by a regional force with one chief constable serving a population of nearly 2.2 million," he said. |
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"We don't need a regional quango – look at how tax credits and the CSA have operated. Large IT systems don't work." |
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