We must fight the mergers
As we all know the Government thankfully failed in its recent attempt to merge the police forces in our area into one huge regional "superforce." I fought these proposals together with other Shropshire MPs in the Commons and lobbied ministers hard on the matter as did our police chiefs.
The Government's basis for pushing this through - that a force of fewer than 4,000 officers could not possibly be effective - was proved to be groundless.
West Mercia Constabulary proved this by coming top of the league for all 43 forces in England and Wales despite having an officer strength of below 4,000.
Many of us suspected that this was a means of creating regional government through the back door.
The Government is still trying to get regional control rooms for the fire service through despite stout resistance from firemen.
The people of the North East roundly rejected the proposals for a regional assembly two years ago and yet the Government keeps on trying to foist them upon us.
Now I hear that they're at it again: this time with magistrates' courts. West Mercia Courts' Board, whose remit covers the judiciary within the area covered by the police force of the same name, is likely to be merged with other boards in the West Midlands thus creating one large board to cover over five million people.
As MP for Shrewsbury I will doing everything possible to fight these proposals. We need to fight to bring accountability closer to the people of Shrewsbury rather than taking it further away.
Daniel Kawczynski MP, Shrewsbury and Atcham
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