Cumbria Police Authority has reserved judgement on proposals to merge the county's police force into a larger strategic force.

Members of the police authority resolved yesterday (Thursday) to write to Home Secretary Charles Clarke and express their concerns that they had not been given enough time or information to make a decision.

The letter will also say that retaining Cumbria police as a single entity should also be considered because the public remained unconvinced about whether a merger would improve policing.

Cumbria Police has been invited by the Home Office to express its preference for a merger with one or more of the region's five police forces.

The Home Office is eager to slash the number of forces across Britain following a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) that found many forces could not meet the demands of the 21st Century.

Under criteria set by the Home Office, each police force must have at least 4,000 officers or 600 backroom staff. At present, Cumbria police, founded in 1968, is one of the smallest forces in the country with 1,260 officers and 747 backroom staff. Neighbouring Lancashire also fails to meet the new criteria, as does Cheshire.

But at a special meeting at Cumbria police headquarters, in Penrith, members said they felt unable to reject or back initial proposals from Chief Constable Michael Baxter.

These proposals which had to be submitted to the Home Office for consideration by midday today (Friday) were discussed in private after the press and public were asked to leave because the talks included matters that involved labour relations or could compromise the prevention of crime.

It is believed labour relations refers to the potential for jobs losses among backroom staff, while the prevention and detection of crime relates to concerns that revealing current shortcomings of Cumbria police could be exploited by criminals.

Now CPA is waiting for the Home Office's response to Mr Baxter's early findings, due on November 7, before it makes its decision three days later.

On November 30, Cumbria police are expected to submit a "full evidenced business case" to the Home Office.

CPA member Coun Mike Ash said the five-week time scale to decide the future of policing in the county was "unrealistic", although his call for a six-month delay failed to win the backing of others.

He added: "We are here to represent the views of the people of Cumbria and I believe the people of Cumbria need to be convinced."

Coun John Woolley said he did not believe that "bigger meant better", saying that the rationalisation of Government bodies had not made it more efficient and effective.

The concerns were echoed at a meeting of the Cumbria Police Authority South Lakeland Area Community Liaison Forum on Wednesday.

Chief Superintendent of the South Cumbria Division Dee Collins moved to allay fears that a merger would result in fewer bobbies on the beat, insisting that the Government had already given assurances that Neighbourhood Policing structures would remain in tact.

She said that at present Cumbria Police did not have the capacity to effectively deal with major incidents such as terrorism, public demonstrations and disasters, which have formed another pivotal part of the Home Office's insistence on change.

"If we had a tragedy like Soham and I need 150 officers at my fingertips we would struggle," said Ms Collins.

Possible mergers: - Cumbria and Lancashire - Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire - Cumbria, Lancashire and Meresyside - Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cheshire - Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Great Manchester and Merseyside