Opposition grows to police force merger

4.39.47pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 29th Nov 2005

Liberal Democrats on Bradford Council are hoping to persuade other councillors to join them in opposing any plan to merge West Yorkshire Police with another force.

Councillor John Briggs is taking a motion to Council on December 6th which supports keeping the force boundaries the same.

He said,

" The timescale for consultation has been far too short and most people don't even know it is happening. The government's agenda is towards centralisation and bigger forces rather than effective local policing.

If mergers are to go ahead, the problems with sorting out the different sums of money raised through the Council Tax from force to force have been ignored in the process.

It is suggested that North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire could merge. But the Council Tax for police at £176 for a band D house in North Yorkshire is much higher than in Bradford ( £107.05 for Band D ) so it could mean a big rise for us without much to show for it. The Government should adjust the amount of money they give West Yorkshire so that the burden does not fall on our Council Tax payers.

Finally, we want the police to be more locally accountable not less and I cannot see how merging forces will achieve that."