DORSET’S Police and Crime Commissioner says he is disappointed by the effective end of the proposed merger of the Dorset and Devon and Cornwall police forces– but says the strategic alliance will continue.

Martyn Underhill admitted to being ‘frustrated’ by some of the decisions of the Devon and Cornwall PCC Alison Hernandez.

“I am very sad that a process led by and supported by operational staff has been ended by a politician,” he said on Thursday.

“What she (Ms Hernandez) has said in the past is that if you pay more you get more. What she has now said is that you pay the same you get less – and that’s a scandal.”

He said that the situation now left around 25 per cent of 7,000 staff in a difficult position with some getting better terms and conditions than others.

Mr Underhill said the two PCCs had differences of opinion over the weighting given to some of the public consultation methods – particularly a random telephone survey which was far more positive in Dorset than it was in Devon and Cornwall.

Mr Underhill said that of the five methods of engagement he believed the telephone survey was the most statistically relevant – a view his opposite number disputed.

There had also been disagreement over the level of face to face engagement – less than 80 people throughout Cornwall, 300-plus in Devon and more than 600 in Dorset.

He said the second major disagreement was over the level of council tax the forces could charge the public. Several models had been investigated to bring the levels of council tax the police charge into line – including one option for a £12 increase in Devon and Cornwall and a £6 reduction in Dorset.

He said that Ms Hernandez wanted to further increase the council charge, above the ‘balancing figure’ to pay for more police officers – a move which, he says, the Government told her they opposed in the summer.

Said Mr Underhill: “I didn’t see the reason of a merger as an excuse to tax people more. The Government clearly opposed what she wanted to do in July.

“This Tuesday she said one of the main reason for not merging was because the Government wouldn’t give her the ability to increase the council tax.

“I’m clearly frustrated – she could have pulled out in July instead of wasting public money.”

Another of his gripes about his opposite number was how the Tuesday announcement had been handled – in a statement by the Devon and Cornwall PCC office, rather than a combined statement, which he said would have been preferred and fairer for staff.

The combined savings of the full merger had been put at around £88million over ten years – which Chief Constable James Vaughan told Thursday’s Dorset Police and Crime committee would have been used to pay for more front line staff.

“Without being able to drive further efficiencies through the merger it could now put our budget at risk for 2020-21,” he said,

“My position is weakened by not merging. I will now have to look at previous options and ensure a relentless pursuit of efficiencies to keep the people of Dorset safe,” said Mr Vaughan.

Figures produced for the committee indicated a £3.4million first year saving from the full merger which may have amounted to an extra 100 staff, with other savings from a reduction in supervisory posts and an end to the duplication of some tasks.

He said that despite the end of the merger process he was still confident that the Dorset force had a bright future with its record of delivering efficiencies and would now have to consider its options for the future.

He said despite his view that the merger was now “dead in the water” he would continue to try and achieve a merger until the end of the formal end of the process on October 8th.

Engagement

Mr Underhill said that he had been disappointed by the low response to the engagement exercise from staff – with less than 2,000 of 7,000 having a say.

He was also critical of a Unison survey which he said lacked context and asked a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response. In that survey of the 15 per cent of staff who took part, 75 per cent had said no to the merger.

Mr Vaughan later told the committee that this may have been because of an, untrue, rumour which claimed that the Dorset control room would be closed down and moved to Exeter.

Mr Underhill also said that the 10,000 public responses, across the three counties, had not been as high as he had hoped – considering an estimated population of around 2.5 million people.

Staffing

The Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner said that with a quarter of the combined 7,000 staff already working as a combined force there were now some staff working under different terms and conditions.

Mr Underhill said that the differences for staff which had been transferred meant some officers were now getting better mileage and overtime rates, than others – a situation which he said was difficult for morale and unfair.

He said that some officers and back room staff had already been transferred from Dorset to Devon and Cornwall for operational reasons, and some transferred in the other direction,

Units already working together include firearms, legal services, road policing, a drone unit, dogs, finance, HR, prevention and integrated offender management.

The PCC said he would have hoped to align terms and conditions across both forces by the full merger taking place.