CHARLES Clarke's plans for a cost-cutting Surrey and Sussex police merger have provoked strong words of objection from Farnham Town Council (FTC). Members appeared to agree unanimously that it would not be in the best interests of the town or the county at a full council meeting last week, a month after Surrey Police rejected calls to merge voluntarily. They decided to lend their support to Surrey Chief Constable Bob Quick and Surrey Police Authority chairman Liz Campbell, who said in a letter to FTC that any savings made from a combined force will simply plug a funding gap rather than improve services. If the ex-Home Sectretary's proposal gets parliamentary backing, a combined force is provisionally scheduled to come into force on April 1, 2008, although a merger order could be in place as soon as October. Mark Norris said: "I think we should lend our weight to what Surrey Police is saying. The government seems quite happy to abolish a police force which has faithfully served its community for 155 years. "A simple test to apply is whether these proposals will make our community safer. "Surrey Police is significantly underfunded. It will not be adding any new officers after a merger, and cannot guarantee it will not send officers to jobs in Sussex. Brighton is always a hot-spot around the time of political conferences. "By way of comparison, Kingston has 96 police and community support officers on dedicated neighbourhood policing duties for a population of 150,000 people. Waverley on the other hand has just 17 community officers looking after 115,000 people. "A merged force would represent and protect almost two- and-a-half million people and would be much more divorced from the local community. "The point of a combined force is to be more resilient against terrorism, but Charles Clark has just set up SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) solely for that purpose. Perhaps we should be giving it a chance to see what it can do." Pat Frost said she "absolutely deplored" the suggestion of a single force stretched across both counties, and encouraged the council to be "strong in our condemnation". She added: "Can you imagine in an emergency finding out half our police have had to rush off to Brighton? I believe this merger would be to the detriment of everyone in Surrey. "I think the government made up its mind about a merger a long time ago, before any consultation on whether this was going to happen." Robert Frost agreed, saying: "I think we are being kicked around by this government. We are sick and tired of being intimidated into a course of action and that is what is happening here." They have the backing of Surrey county councillor and Surrey Police Authority (SPA) member Chris Slyfield, who told a recent local committee meeting: "All I can see being achieved by a merger is dilution of police power and a lack of accountability." Mr Slyfield explained that a majority of elected Surrey councillors on the SPA (nine of the 17 members) is likely to be slashed to three on a joint police authority also covering Sussex. This, he said, would give residents in this county fewer opportunities to influence police policy and practice. He added; "A lot of people criticise the police, but at least we (the councillors on the SPA) are a useful resource for members of the public who want their complaints processed. "We ensure the SPA is democratically accountable and we want any future police authority to stay that way. But how do we achieve that if our numbers are cut from nine to three?"