Philip Dunne today slammed the Government for failing to reimburse police forces in full for their costs incurred in investigating police mergers, now thankfully abandoned.Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, today slammed the Government for failing to reimburse police forces in full for their costs incurred in investigating police mergers, now thankfully abandoned.

Earlier this year, the Government tried to bully West Mercia police into merger to create a new regional police force covering the whole of the West Midlands. The police did not want it, the public did not want it, and parish and other councils did not want it.

Eventually these plans were scrapped. The U-turn followed eight months of hard work, diverting senior police resources from their day-to-day role.

Yesterday, the Home Office announced that the Government had agreed to reimburse only a small fraction of the costs incurred by West Mercia Police, leaving the force to find savings or council tax payers to pick up the rest of the bill.

West Mercia Police is to receive only £89,061 of its estimated £428, 000 costs.

Mr Dunne said: "This just shows how reckless the Government's plan to force regionalisation on West Mercia Police really was. The Home Office got them into this mess and is now refusing to accept responsibility to pay for the consequences. Money that police forces should be using for frontline policing has been wasted."