My article is this coming week’s Cornish Guardian focuses on the so-called consultation into the proposed merger of “Devon and Cornwall” and Dorset police forces. It will be as follows:
The online consultation into the proposal to merge the “Devon & Cornwall” and Dorset police forces comes to an end on 27th August.
My opposition to the merger and the centralisation of public services into larger “south west” bodies is well known. It is my strong view that the Police in Cornwall need decent levels of funding, not a merger.
I have also been very disappointed at the biased nature of the consultation. The local Police and Crime Commissioner has claimed that she “is on the fence” about the proposed merger and yet she has been actively promoting material setting out “seven reasons to merge.” This has been widely shared on social media and elsewhere, and she also produced a video which really did lack balance.
There have also been numerous claims about the financial benefits of the merger but, at the same time, we have been repeatedly told that the business case had yet to be completed.
I think it is ridiculous and wrong that the consultation has been carried out in advance of the business case – which will nonetheless be ready for submission as part of the bid to central government, which is timetabled for mid October.
It has certainly made it all farcical at times. When the issue was discussed at a meeting of Cornwall Council on 10th July, I was among a range of councillors who challenged the merger. But many elected members were unhappy about the lack of information, while others – for political reasons – used the uncertainty to limit criticism of the Police Commissioner.
As a consequence, the Council voted to request further information along with an extension to the consultation which, to my knowledge, has not been forthcoming. It means that the consultation will be completed before the next meeting of Cornwall Council.
It was a similar scenario at the recent meeting of the advisory Police and Crime Panel, made up of councillors from across the force area, many of whom were unhappy with the lack of information. One even said: “It was a nice presentation with nice words, but are we wasting our time today, as we can’t scrutinise anything?”
It is my understanding is that they agreed to re-arrange the date of their next meeting at the request of the Police Commissioner, so they could get sight of the business case – a privilege not being extended to others.
Put politely, it is a less than satisfactory situation, but I would still encourage everyone to make their views known over the next few days. The online survey can be found at: https://www.futurepolicing.co.uk/
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