THE cost of setting up a regional police force in the West Midlands would be about £53m, leading to fears that front-line officers could be axed to pay for the controversial move.

The estimated costs to merge West Mercia Police with West Midlands, Warwickshire and Staffordshire, were revealed by West Mercia on Friday after a confidential report on the national picture was leaked to the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper said a report drawn up for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) showed the costs of merging forces across England and Wales will be up to £600m - equivalent to axing 25,000 officer posts.

The figure of £53m across the West Midlands is equivalent to 2,208 officer posts.

The report complains that the Government expects the mergers to be funded from existing capital resources which are not growing quickly enough - which means cuts will be needed elsewhere in the system to pay for the amalgamation.

Paul Deneen, chairman of West Mercia Police Authority, said the cost of setting up a regional force in the West Midlands is estimated to be in the region of £50m to £53m but that it was impossible to say what impact - if any - this would have on front-line staff.

"We know that these costs will be incurred if the four forces are merged," he added.

"What is less certain is the levels of savings that can be achieved through any merger because these proposals are untried and untested.

"However, it would not be appropriate at this time to speculate on the effect that could have on front line policing numbers in the West Mercia force area.

"The Police Authority continues to be totally opposed to the formation of a regional force.

The Worcester News reported on Wednesday how the chief constable of West Mercia, Paul West, said he feared creating a regional force would create an over-large bureaucracy and lead to a loss of back-up services for victims of crime.

"The back-up services might be lost in a large bureaucracy," he said. "For the local person in the street that's when you would start to notice - if you were a victim of crime and you wanted to see the police officer responsible you might struggle in a large organisation."