NORTH Yorkshire's Police force is doomed. Despite the inevitable promises of "consultation" it is quite clear that the Home Secretary has every intention of rushing through his grand strategy of producing bigger police forces no matter what.

Sadly responding to any consultation is a pointless exercise. This is government by edict not by consent.

Still, Craven residents can sleep easier in their beds in the knowledge that the terrorists in the next street will be locked up and the Colombian drug cartels will find their activities halted. But we suspect that in 10 years time Craven communities will look back upon the good old days when North Yorkshire, for all its current faults, did occasionally respond when the local vandals were kicking the wing mirrors off cars.

According to the Yorkshire Post this week, one of our new partners, Humberside Police, has instructed officers in Hull not to arrest criminals in "minor" cases (such as less than £1,000 worth of criminal damage or low level assault) because they are understaffed and cannot cope.

This crystallizes our whole opposition to the police merger. A chief superintendent is quoted as saying "We have to prioritise and make difficult decisions".

Project that forward and think how much attention little Skipton and tiny Settle are going to get from the superforce of tomorrow.

Both the Police Federation and our own MP (backed by Labour MPs such as John Grogan, Ann Cryer and Hugh Bayley) call on the Home Secretary to have a system of a federation, in which police forces pool resources for the big issues but maintain their local focus. Alas, the Home Secretary has no intention of listening.