CALLS to maintain Gwent Police's independence in the face of controversial merger proposals are continuing.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke's announcement on Monday of his intention to draw up plans to merge some of the country's forces was met with anger by Gwent politicians yesterday.

Wales' Chief Constables and police authorities are now considering what these merger proposals should be.

But last night, Mike German, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the National Assembly and South Wales East AM, joined the legion of cross-party politicians opposed to the plans. He argued that a merger would mean a loss of local accountability.

Mr German said the shake- up was tailored to the policing needs of England and believes the decision should be devolved to the Assembly. "More than half the money that goes to police forces in Wales is directly funded by the Assembly," he said.

"If you have a very large police force, you lose the local accountability which is so important to communities, especially when you have special needs in certain areas.

"The rationale behind the changes is that you need to be able to respond to major events but when the EU ministers met at the Celtic Manor in Newport it went very smoothly so it is possible for forces to co-operate and there are ways in which a national database can be shared." He said the efficiency argument of replacing 'top-heavy' localised police forces with 'too many chiefs' could be countered by the loss of accountability.

"If you have a police force covering two-thirds of the population, the availability to influence the police's policy on issues would be much less and they wouldn't have time to take to talk to local authorities and councils.

"Gwent Police have got a fine record of detection and they are a small force who are achieving a very high standard indeed."

Jeff Mapps, chairman of the Gwent Police Federation, said any amalgamation would prove unwieldy.

"If there was to be just one force to cover Wales, it would be huge and very difficult for a chief constable to manage effectively - even if you had two forces, one for North Wales and another for South Wales, geographically it would be very difficult to manage."