Police Powers should be devolved to Cardiff

Dyfed-Powys Police has the best crime detection rate in the country. It recently seized a large haul of drugs in Pembrokeshire and in August 2001, the time of the BNP rally, coped with the largest threat to public order in Montgomeryshire since the Chartists Troubles of 1839 yet the Home Office and Peter Hain want to reform it on the basis that it cannot cope with drug-trafficking and terror threats. In addition the Westminster government wants us, the taxpayers, to pay for the £40m this pointless exercise will cost.

The wishes of the people of Mid and West Wales are being totally ignored in this matter. Responsibility for policing should be devolved to the National Assembly with the requisite level of funding so that the people of Wales alone decide the future of the police forces in Wales.