Go ahead for Parks Police merger

12.25.27pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 19th Feb 2004

The head of the Royal Parks, William Weston has written to MP Vincent Cable to tell him that the Parks police will be merged into the metropolitan police on April 1 the 1st. However there are no legislative provisions to merge the bodies as yet and the government is not giving priority to new legislation, so the merger will go ahead on an interim basis through an operational command unit.

Vince Cable explained "this is a welcome development. There will be a higher police presence in the parks through police officers and community support officers. This will be of particular benefit in Bushy Park where there has been vandalism and late night problems, resulting in restrictions on access for the wider public. The proposal is largely uncontroversial but the dilatoriness of the government has held things up".