A POLICE authority chairman has fired a warning shot over the bows of Home Secretary Charles Clarke - urging the Government minister to withdraw his proposal to merge the Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria police forces.

Mr Clarke is told in a "Letter Before Claim" - the first preliminary step in the Judicial Review process - that his decision to merge the three forces is "unfair, irrational and perverse, and has been taken after a process conducted with undue haste and which is fundamentally flawed".

Under the procedure, the Home Secretary has until Thursday to respond to the letter from Cleveland Police Authority, which is emphatically opposed to plans to create a single northern police force.

The authority argues that insufficient time has been allowed for a full and proper evaluation of all alternative options, including a Tees Valley City Region force, a merger between Cleveland and Durham, as well as federation and collaboration arrangements between the forces within the region.

The letter invites Mr Clarke to withdraw the notice and allow a minimum of 12 months for the evaluation of all options to be conducted "fairly, openly and with integrity".

Police Authority chairman, Councillor Dave McLuckie, said: "It is important to stress that we do not want to become involved in legal action and indeed the Letter Before Claim process is specifically designed to identify the issues in dispute and establish whether litigation can be avoided.

"We have underlined that the manner in which the process has been handled means there has been a failure to address fundamental issues, including finance, staff, information technology considerations and governance and accountability.

"I hope he will accept that it is in everyone's interests - most of all, the public, which we as an authority and a force have a duty to serve - for a proper review of all options to be undertaken within a proper and sensible time scale. That is not what has happened so far.''

Representatives from the Cleveland authority met in London yesterday with other police authorities which have concerns about the merger threat to their local forces.