Beds and Herts police 'planning £17.8m merger'
Beds and Herts police forces keen to push ahead with planned merger
16 July 2010
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire police could be about to put new
negotiation strategies into place as they look to merge in order to
cut costs.
Outlining their plans at a public meeting, the two forces
advised residents that such a merger would free-up much-needed
funds to concentrate on fighting crime.
According to their estimates, should the £17.8 million merger
go-ahead, millions of pounds would be saved over the coming years,
with this also helping to protect 360 police officer jobs which are
currently at risk due to financial restraints.
Addressing residents, Peter Conniff, who chairs the Bedfordshire
Police Authority, advised that, while both forces are keen to push
ahead with the plans, negotiations are still ongoing.
"I would like to stress that we will not be making a decision on
whether to merge at this meeting and obviously, whatever happens,
both police authorities will need to agree their preferred way
forward," he said.
At the same time, the European Union has finally give the
go-ahead to a proposed merger between British Airways and Spain's
Iberia.