West Mercia should not be subsidising Warwickshire

West Mercia Police should not be subsidising Warwickshire Police, the region’s police and crime commissioner has said.

John Campion, the police and crime commissioner for West Mercia, said he favoured collaboration with the neighbouring force but said he could not sign up to a relationship which saw West Mercia “effectively subsidising” Warwickshire Police.

Mr Campion said the force was not getting the full use out of the hundreds of millions it spends on policing and West Mercia would be now using its resources more effectively and efficiently.

When asked where the savings appear in the budget for the split from Warwickshire, Mr Campion said the end of the alliance was not about saving money.

He said: “We are being more efficient with the resources we currently have. It is not about saving money.”

Mr Campion said there would not be a ‘line’ in his budget which showed how much West Mercia would save from ending the alliance.

He said: “We are currently spending just over £200 million in the current budget and the view of myself and the chief constable is we are not getting the benefit of that £211 million.

“The line in the budget is we are being more effective with the resources that we currently have.

“It is not about saving money. I have a duty to commission an efficient and effective police force and we are saying the effectiveness is being damaged by the current alliance model.”

Mr Campion said West Mercia was “losing out” on some of its resources because they were “constantly” being sent to Warwickshire.

He said: “The current model says Warwickshire only have two armed response vehicles (ARVs) and we are constantly sending that third ARV.

“Now that ARV would be in Worcestershire, Herefordshire or Shropshire but more likely they would be doing what they do most of the time which is catching local criminals or doing visible patrol or speed enforcement so we are losing out on our resources.

“It isn’t about putting an extra in the budget saying these are the savings that are being delivered by cancelling that particular relationship.”