Call for Cornwall only police force in Government shake-up
It's following the Home Secretary’s announcement on Monday of a shake-up of policing
Cornwall should have its own police force and not be lumped in with a much larger South West wide constabulary. That was the view of a leading Cornwall councillor yesterday (Tuesday 27 January).
It's following the Home Secretary’s announcement on Monday of a shake-up of policing which could see the number of local forces in England and Wales cut by about two-thirds to create a new National Police Service (NPS).
On the merging of police forces, the Home Office said the precise number and nature of each force will be the subject to a review that will report back to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in the summer.
At a meeting of Cornwall Council’s corporate finance scrutiny committee today, Mebyon Kernow leader Cllr Dick Cole asked: “I was wondering what this authority is doing in terms of the announcement yesterday by the Home Secretary about policing reforms?
“I believe the announcement is suggesting that the present Devon and Cornwall Police force is going to be merged and made much larger when actually – given our National Minority status – should we not be putting a line in the sand and saying we’d like a Cornish police force please?”
Cornwall Council’s Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Leigh Frost replied: “I think it’s a fair comment that you raise – a larger force is probably not the right thing.”
He suggested with Government changes, such as getting rid of police and crime commissioners, it could be time to see a “blue lights” reorganisation, meaning there’s a Cornwall-only police force.
“That’s something we’d have to look into to see how achievable and workable that is. It is something we are going to explore,” added Cllr Frost.
Cllr Cole added that his understanding was a significant reduction in the number of forces “and people are talking about a South West force run from Bristol”.
Committee chair and former Independent leader of Cornwall Council Cllr Julian German said the authority, under a previous administration, had written to the police minister asking for the de-merger of Devon and Cornwall Police force and “received a positive reply regarding bringing forward a business case”.
“We have also previously put forward for a combined fire, police and ambulance service on a Cornwall footprint to drive those efficiencies across the public sector by bringing emergency services together.
“It could be an interesting time to revive those conversations.”
Committee deputy chairman and Cornish Independent Non-Aligned Group member Cllr Rob Parsonage noted that there has been a suggestion that there will be local area head offices, “which will go a long way to take us back to having local policing, so there is a positive in there which we need to take into account”.