POLICE authority chiefs in the region last night vowed to kill off plans to merge the Merseyside and Cheshire forces once and for all.
And Merseyside Police Authority also called on the Government to release £125m it had set aside to finance mergers so that "public protection" measures such as anti-terrorism work could be enhanced.
Home Secretary Dr John Reid put the merger of most police forces on hold earlier this month, and is not expected to announce new plans for several months at least.
Only Lancashire and Cumbria forces, which supported a merger, will now join up.
But in Merseyside and Cheshire, police authority chiefs hope to kill off the merger plans once and for all, claiming a unification would cost £36m.
That money would enable more than 360 police officers to be employed in Merseyside and Cheshire for five years.
But the current plans for merger would leave the new enlarged force £6m-a-year worse off than the two are now, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
A resolution moved by Merseyside Police Authority states that they "restate the position that it could not enter into a voluntary merger until such time as the Home Office give proper assurances in respect of the fundamental questions raised by this Authority in relation to financing and precept harmonisation."
It adds: "The authority calls upon Dr John Reid to immediately release to those 'Wave One Forces' the £125m set aside to aid the financing of force mergers. This will enable those forces to commence the urgent work needed to provide the levels of public protection identified by government."
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