Policing White Paper

[8x57]

Reckon if it happens it will be North Wales & South Wales.
On a rough line A44 A470 A483.

The would be the least worst solution. One police force for Wales just wouldn't work. North Wales and South Wales are virtually two different countries with totally different cultures and also separated by language, not to mention that road and rail communication links between the two are virtually non existent.
It takes me four and a half to five hours to cross Wales diagonally by road (on a good day). The same journey by train takes six hours and by bus if I used my bus pass ten hours.

The merger of forces was considered back in the 90’s but binned due to the incompatibility of systems and cost. This could go the same way.

Going back even further to the 70's there was a proposal to amalgamate Monmouthshire/Gwent police and Gloucestershire police to form a new Severnside force. Historically that is why Gwent was left alone and not absorbed into South wales police. At that time long before all this devolution divisiveness nonsense there were great plans for a Severnside development that would span both sides of the river. A great shame that it never came off it could have been good for the region.

 

[Apthorpe]

I have said for years why do we have so many autonomous police forces in the UK - it must lead to huge inefficiencies.

Is that because you believe more strongly in "economies of scale" than in "diseconomies of scale"? Large organisations are not necessarily any more efficient than smaller ones.

Why do Northumbria use Peugeot beat cars, Durham Toyota and Cleveland Ford?? Why doesn't a central purchasing authority just go to Ford and tell them they want 3000 Focuses??

Because 3000 Focuses might not be the right answer. An urban force would need different cars to a rural force, etc etc, There is a rather peculiar assumption that if many entities make many different choices, variously good, bad and indifferent, then somehow replacing them with a single entity would be bound to make the best of all possible choices. That is a conclusion which is obviously unrealistic.

 

[8x57]

Also experience has shown that fleet buyers should not be dependant on one manufacturer or a sole supplier.
Problems occasionally crop up where parts and spares are not available which could put an entire fleet off the run if dependant on a single manufacturer.

 

[Apthorpe]

Personally, I don't think the evidence indicates that the public sector currently has the competence to manage a series of multiple mergers at once without a complete pigs breakfast ensuing.
Devon and Cornwall merged their firearms functions with Dorset and it was a dysfunctional shambles which was subsequently unwound. Where one fairly simple function ends in a mess, there's no reason to presume that far more ambitious restructuring could go smoothly.
The government can't even hold the same opinions consistently for one month. These sorts of ideas are pseudo-religious, not rational.

 

[GWP]

Will this be just like Police Scotland