NO interest was shown in the idea of a regional police force to replace Wiltshire Constabulary and its smaller West Country colleagues when the consultation bandwagon rolled into Devizes last week.

Councillors and residents of Kennet district had been invited to the consultation event in the Assembly Room at Devizes Town Hall last Wednesday night to look at the suggestions in the Government's Green Paper, Building Safer Communities Together, on the future of policing in England and Wales.

About 50 turned up, many of them town or parish councillors and others connected with Neighbourhood Watch schemes in the district, and after hearing an introduction by Bertie Woolnough, chairman of the Wiltshire and Swindon Police Authority, they split up into three groups, each discussing a different key issue of the Green Paper.

Chief Superintendent Andy Tatam, head of the Salisbury division, which takes in Kennet district, chaired the group that was discussing forces' structures and operational effectiveness.

Among the questions they were asked to discuss were: should force structures follow county or regional boundaries?; would regional forces deliver better operational outcomes than the present force structure?; would a regional force give you a better service and better value for money?; would greater collaboration between forces be preferable to amalgamation?

The answer to the first three questions was a resounding 'no'. The group generally agreed with Mr Woolnough's comments that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and "big is not necessarily beautiful".

Mr Tatam told the meeting, once it had reconvened: "It was felt that economies of scale are not necessarily gained by amalgamation and if something goes wrong in a big organisation it goes wrong big time."

In fact, very few of the suggestions made in the Green Paper found much favour among Kennet residents, such as "community advocates" to resolve minor disputes and local policing boards to oversee and to hold local commanders to account.

Wiltshire Constabulary has until January 27 to respond to the Green Paper.