Home Office Hash-up is costing our Police - Burnham

11.06.00am GMT Tue 31st Oct 2006

Eleanor Burnham AM today condemned the second blow to the North Wales police force following the news that the Labour led assembly government will be stripping more funds from their local government budget.

This comes after regional police forces lost nearly £900,000 after being forced to pay out on planning for the Home Office's failed scheme to merge all four Welsh forces.

Reacting to the news that North Wales police will be forced to cut 120 support jobs to deal with this two-fold funding shortfall, Ms Burnham, Welsh Liberal Democrat for North Wales, spoke up in anger against what she saw as the result of an overbearing Home Office.

Ms Burnham said: "I have reiterated time and again the fact that this whole mess was a result of a Home Office that refuses to listen to those on the front line in Wales.

"They were told before any of their consultation started that a police merger in Wales would require a huge amount of extra funding, particularly in North Wales where the force had just implemented a new IT system that would have had to have been scrapped in the merger.

"By pushing ahead with feasibility studies and drawing up plans, which the North Wales force had to help pay for, and then dumping the idea, we see our police force facing a massive drain on resources.

"To top it all, the Home Office has announced a limit of £100,000 on its contribution to pay back each police force across Wales.

"Now the North Wales police force is facing a funding gap of nearly £150,000, even after the Home Office contribution.

"The Labour government, first in Westminster and now in the Assembly, have cost our police force dear. With jobs being cut within the force, I dread to think of the potential impact to front-line policing in North Wales."

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