News Release

29th August 2006

COUNCIL TAX PAYERS TO STUMP UP COST OF FAILED POLICE MERGER

"The poor old council tax payer will now have to stump up the cost of the failed national police mergers which the Government was trying to force and which included the merger between Staffordshire Police and the West Midlands" says Michael Fabricant who resolutely opposed Staffordshire being "swallowed up" into a regional west midlands service. "I will be asking Home Office ministers a series of questions when Parliament returns in October to pressure the Government into reimbursing the full costs of the exercise. It was their damn fool idea in the first place", he adds.

Staffordshire Police informed the Daily Telegraph earlier this month that they had spent £134,000 planning the now abandoned merger. And while the Home Office have said they will make a contribution towards the costs of all police forces, it will not reimburse the total costs which will have to come out of policing and be funded by the council tax payer. There are also likely to be hidden costs in excess of the £134,000.

Alan Gordon, the Vice Chairman of the Police Federation, called the merger "ill conceived" and said "Police Authorities are now having to pay the cost which could have been directed at front line policing".