Hokey-Cokey Police Policy Means Welsh Merger's Off - Öpik

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 12th Jul 2006

Following comments made by Tony Blair and Home Office Minister Tony McNulty regarding the proposed police force mergers, Lembit Öpik, MP for Montgomeryshire and Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said:

"The Government doesn't want to admit it but it seems the Welsh police merger is on ice. The Prime Minister said there would be no 'forced mergers'. There's so much hostility in Wales towards the merger that this means the Welsh merger is effectively off for now.

"It's a bit of a hokey-cokey approach to policy announcements- in, out, in, out- but all signs are the merger's off.

"This Labour u-turn is good news for Welsh policing. It seems the Government has slowly come to realise what the whole of Wales has known for some time- that scrapping the four Welsh forces would be a huge mistake.

"The Government's decision to throw out this ill-judged policy is welcome and necessary. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have always been adamant that this merger would be hugely expensive and would damage the quality of Welsh policing, particularly in rural areas. Local policing and local accountability would have suffered.

"For the last 10 months the Government has been engaged in a farcical process, abjectly failing to answer vital questions about funding, council tax and accountability. Credit is due to John Reid for realising the major flaws in this policy and moving to stop it becoming law. He inherited a total mess, and it looks like he's serious about tidying it up."