TORIES ATTACK POLICE MERGER PLAN

LEWES Conservatives have attacked the Government's decision to push ahead with plans to force Sussex and Surrey Police to merge.

By The Newsroom

Published 19th Apr 2006, 10:31 BST

Updated 7th Jun 2018, 22:53 BST

Home Secretary Charles Clarke last week announced that the merger would go ahead despite the Sussex Police Authority criticising the plans as fundamentally flawed.

Ken Jordan, chairman of Lewes Conservatives, said: 'The decision to ram through this merger is the action of an arrogant government.

'The police do not want this merger. The people do not want this merger. And the evidence is that this merger will not cut crime.

'Yet still Labour push ahead with this scheme.

'The merger will damage neighbourhood policing and make the police more distant from local communities.

'Rather than embarking on ill-conceived reforms, Labour should get on with the job of helping the police to cut crime. Like most of Labour's so-called reforms, it will simply add to costs without causing any improvements in efficiency whatsoever.'