Police authorities say they would prefer collaboration

Authorities have objected to the speed with which the Home Secretary plans to reduce the country's forces from 43 to as few as 12.

Options include the creation of one force for the East Midlands.

Another proposal is to group Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in one division and Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire in another.

Work Together

Representatives of the Association of Police Authorities (APA) were meeting more than 150 MPs on Wednesday to protest about the merger plans.

Charles Clarke insists that the development of larger "strategic" forces will help police combat terrorism and organised crime.

But the APA said forces should work together on such issues, rather than merge.

Councillor Alan Jones, member of Derbyshire Police Authority, said: "I think the present force structure should remain in place.

"But I do think that we should engineer a collaborative engagement, where we share our services and work together on certain issues."

Councillor John Clarke, chairman of Nottinghamshire Police Authority, said he is outraged at the speed in which the changes are being pushed through.

Start up costs could be considerable Byron Rhodes

Local authorities are also concerned about the cost of the proposed mergers.

When the planned changes were announced, Councillor Byron Rhodes, chairman of Leicestershire Police Authority, said: "Potential start up costs could be considerable and significant recurring year on year funding would be required.

"The government's line to date is that has been that there is no new money to fund any changes, so we are looking at other options."

But Charles Clarke insists the measures do have police backing.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday that chief constables had "very strong views" in favour of the moves to merge the forces.

But he conceded that "if you go region by region, you have got a range of different views held by chief constables and police authorities".

"The point is that the majority of police in Britain think this change is right," he said.