THE chairman of the Surrey Police Authority appeared resigned to losing the battle for Surrey to remain a stand-alone force, following last week's announcement by Home Secretary Charles Clarke that he wants Surrey to merge with Sussex. Mr Clarke dashed the hopes of police authority chairman Liz Campbell and Surrey Chief Constable Bob Quick at a meeting at which he asked them to agree to the merger to create a single strategic crime-fighting force. The fate of Hampshire, Kent and Thames Valley, which will not be merged and will be reconfigured as strategic forces, was announced at the same time. Mr Clarke said he wanted the forces' representatives to consider taking forward "the option for policing which I believe will be of the greatest benefit to their communities". Although she has until April 7 to respond, after which a final decision will be made, Ms Campbell was largely accepting of the situation, although concerned about the financial implications, in a statement issued after the meeting. The Surrey Police Authority, while seeking to remain a stand-alone force, had called for better central funding from the Home Office to close the force's accumulating funding gap caused by several years of poor central grant settlements to forces in the South East. The authority had also asked for more autonomy from the government over the structure of the workforce to enable the Chief Constable to use the most appropriate resources in the right way for Surrey. The Home Secretary announced his intention to reduce the existing 43 police forces in England and Wales to create bigger strategic forces last September. This decision followed the publication of the HMIC report "Closing the Gap", which said forces with fewer than 4,000 officers were not resilient enough to cope with protective services (major crime, terrorism, emergency planning and cross border organised criminality). Since then, forces in the North West, the Midlands and Wales have been asked to prepare to merge. In a statement outlining the future of policing in the South East , Mr Clarke said: "My vision for the police service in the 21st century is that it should be close, responsive and accountable to the communities it serves, supported by larger forces with the capacity and specialist expertise to protect the public from wider threats such as serious and organised crime. "The roll out of neighbourhood policing across the country by April 2008 is, with the creation of strategic forces, the key to achieving that vision." Police authority chairman Liz Campbell said the meeting with the Home Secretary had been "productive". "He listened to our views, and in particular the difficulties presented by Surrey only receiving £87 per head of population in central grant compared to a national average of £106 per head. "The two neighbouring forces of Kent and Hampshire are both funded at £108 and £105 (respectively) in central grant per head of population. If Surrey and Sussex were funded centrally to a similar degree, an expensive and disruptive merger would not be necessary. "We hope to work together to try to bridge our funding gap to ensure the service we provide to Surrey residents is not adversely affected." Liz Campbell said that despite some concerns over a merger, "we accept that parliament has the final say in requiring us to merge". The authority would continue to do its best to deliver a solution which secures a good future for Surrey, but any merger must be properly funded, so that the burden does not fall on Surrey council tax payers, she said. "We will work closely with our colleagues in Sussex to deliver a new strategic force which combines our strengths," she added. Chief Constable Bob Quick delivered a warning that restructuring will not deliver resilience without the appropriate funding to back it up. He said: "Surrey Police is recognised as being a high-performing force in controlling crime and anti-social behaviour and in providing high levels of customer service. "We are a pioneering force in our development of targeted neighbourhood policing, which puts communities at the heart of policing, and in the area of workforce modernisation, which is helping to build the service of the future. "We remain committed to maintaining our neighbourhood policing style, as our recent policing plan survey has shown that Surrey people are feeling safer and have more confidence in the police in their area. "Our priority is to resolve this underlying funding deficit - any merger has to be sufficiently well- funded so as to ensure that policing cover in Surrey is not reduced in favour of higher crime areas outside the county."
