THE Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset, Steve Pilkington, has been warned against restructuring police resources in the Yeovil area.

Mr Pilkington last week outlined plans to merge the force's East Somerset district, which covers Yeovil, with the West Somerset policing area.

But Yeovil MP David Laws is worried that not enough detailed work has been on the effects of this change or what concrete benefits the merger will achieve.

Mr Laws has written to the Chief Constable and told him that it would be premature to re-organise the policing areas until there is more detailed information about the plan an informed debate on the matter.

"I have called upon the Chief Constable to give a lot more detail about his plan to merge or rationalise the two policing aras of West Somerset and East Somerset," he said.

"Chard, Yeovil, Crewkerne and Ilminster are in the East Somerset area and this plan could lead to our area's police headquarters being based in Taunton instead of Yeovil.

"How does this devolve police powers? It is also far from clear what administrative savings would be made and if any savings would go into extra bobbies on the beat in our area.

"The police constabulary already seem to have decided that a merger is the best option and has only given two and a half weeks of real consultation time. This decision is much too important to be rushed.

"I have asked the Chief Constable some detailed questions on how the proposed merger affects South Somerset and we will only be able to make an informed judgement once we have the answers."

Mr Laws said a decision on the merger needed to be delayed until more work was done on how it would affect policing in the local area.