COMMUNITY organisations are joining North Wales Police Authority to challenge Government plans for an all-Wales police merger.
The plans, set in motion by former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, would see all of Wales policed by one force administered from Cardiff.
North Wales Police would disappear and, according to police authority members, so would money and community policing.
Together Creating Communities (TCC), an organisation which tries to develop communities in Wrexham, has taken its concerns over the proposed mergers to the new Home Secretary Dr John Reid (pictured).
In a letter to Dr Reid, senior organiser Chris Pilsbury welcomed his intention to halt the mergers in order to investigate the implications.
But he expressed the frustration of TCC's members that the detailed concerns the organisation has put forward to the previous Home Secretary Charles Clarke and Welsh Secretary Peter Hain have not been responded to.
TCC has raised questions about the effect an all-Wales merger would have on the strong operational links between North Wales and North West England.
They also want to know what would happen to the higher police precept in Wrexham's council tax that means it benefits from a considerable number of community beat managers and the relationships and accountability between the police force and the public which have been built up over time.
'The response that TCC has received appears to deal with points raised against a merger as if they are administrative obstacles,' said Chris Pilsbury.
'Our questions need to be thought through in detail before any decisions are taken. These questions should not be resolved after the decisions have been made.
'We are also concerned by Peter Hain's recently expressed opinion that objections to a whole Wales force stem only from a few local politicians. This is wildly inaccurate.
'As a crucial part of the Wrexham Police Community Consultative Group, TCC knows this is not the case. Hundreds of people across the region are worried about it.'
