BY openly admitting that Cleveland Police is unsustainable, Police and Crime Commissioner, Barry Coppinger is at last facing up to the reality that his Cleveland force is not fit for purpose (HAS, Sept 26).

Barry blames unfair Government funding but there are other salient factors, such as the small size of our constabulary, and its rocky history. These factors make it inevitable that the ultimate fate of Cleveland Police is its eradication, root and branch.

For me, the sooner this happens, the better.

We have larger adjoining forces which could easily absorb Cleveland Police, with the north of our area going into Durham and the south into North Yorkshire.

Inevitably, the economies of scale would release resources for neglected areas, like east Cleveland, where neighbourhood policing has been decimated.

No tweaking of the Government’s funding formula will transform Cleveland into a super-efficient force.

Barry will do us all a favour if, in his next letter to the PM, he tells her that, because of its endemic unsustainability, the only solution is total abolition and the absorption of his patch into neighbouring force areas.

Cllr Steve Kay, Moorsholm, east Cleveland