Ministerial policing priorities ‘mysterious outside planet Whitehall’ – Lib Dems
Devon and Cornwall’s eight Liberal Democrat MPs have today (Monday) welcomed news that a further £578,000 is to be allocated to the counties’ police authority.
£25m had been held back across the country to fund Government plans to create regional forces, but widespread opposition to the scheme caused Ministers to mount a humiliating climb down.
Commenting, Nick Harvey, MP for North Devon, said,
“It’s astonishing that the Government thought it all appropriate to waste half a million pounds of local taxpayers’ money on a wheeze that would have reduced the police’s effectiveness and made forces less accountable to local people.”
Torbay MP, Adrian Sanders, added,
“Finally, police authorities are getting some of their money back, having been forced to spend hundreds of thousands on investigating the feasibility of regionalising the force instead of on solving crimes. That money still hasn’t been reimbursed in full.”
North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson continued,
“Why Ministers ever thought it better to spend police time and money on a structural shake-up rather than on frontline policing is mysterious to anyone outside Planet Whitehall.
“That they have come to their senses must be welcome but local people are bound to ask why the extra cash was ever withheld in the first place.”
