Letter to the Editor - Cost of Police Mergers

Written by Eleanor Burnham and published in Daily Post on Mon 20th Feb 2006

The proposed police merger is seriously flawed and could be expensive for all council tax payers. Yesterdays House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee report on the proposed police merger tells us this again. It is a hard hitting report which is strongly critical of the government's mishandling of this whole merger process.

Peter Hain and Charles Clarke have shown a blatant disregard for the concerns of police authorities, elected politicians and members of the public in Wales.

The fact is that they have yet to tell us how much it is all going to cost. We know the merger will be expensive but there are no reliable figures to say what this will cost council tax payers in the long run. It seems to be a question of merge first, asks questions later.

Yours truly,

Eleanor Burnham AM

Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for North Wales.