PLANS to set up an all-Wales police force have been criticised by Wrexham councillors after they were not even formally consulted.
The executive board discussed the plans after Cllr Ian Roberts, member for Chirk North and chairman of North Wales Police Authority (NWPA), notified council leader Aled Roberts of the proposals.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has told police authorities in Wales he plans to treat the country as a region, combining North and South Wales forces. But he has not allowed councils to make representations on the scheme.
'The police serve the community, how can the people's representatives not have a say on the future of the forces?' said Cllr Bob Dutton.
'I suggest we write to the Home Office highlighting our concerns at its conduct here.
'There is also a tight timescale for a decision. It is set up so that police authorities have to make their final observations in mid-December so that they all go off on holiday, forget about the measures and the Government can slip the change through unnoticed and with no trouble.'
Former NWPA chairman and current member Malcolm King said the Home Office was treating Wales badly.
'We are a nation in our own right, not a region of England, and we should be treated differently,' he said.
'In North Wales we are all aware of the dangers of climbing into bed with a big centralised monster. Without meaning to, it rolls over and crushes you.
'If we are administered from Cardiff, which is most likely under these plans, we will no longer be able to look to agreements we have with Cheshire, Merseyside and West Mercia police forces for assistance in things like the Caia Park riots.
'Instead, we will have to look to the South, where officers will take a good four hours to reach us. It is not feasible.
'Recently the force spent a lot of money on tracking down and capturing the post office robbers who terrorised post offices from here to Stafford and up through North Wales, stealing around £10,000 a time.
'It was a great piece of detection. However, if officers from the North had to get approval and funding for that operation from Cardiff, when the city has drug dealers dealing in millions of pounds that require significant funding to crack, we would have lost out and the post office raiders may not have been caught.'
Mr King added: 'We are a nation and should be treated as such.
'I think a positive step would be to suggest the police force authorities follow the same map as the fire and rescue services and have a North, a South and a Dyfed-Powys region.'
