GOVERNMENT plans to merge Surrey Police with the neighbouring Sussex force have collapsed, it was announced today. It was today announced that the Government would not be pressing ahead with its deeply unpopular ‘forced’ restructuring proposals.South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt, who has been campaigning for Surrey Police to remain a stand alone force since entering Parliament, was delighted with the news that the two local forces may not be joined together.Jeremy said: “It is about time too that the Government woke up to the fact that these merger plans were nothing but floored. The idea of merging two forces, such as Surrey and Sussex, was fundamentally floored from the outset and would have been a huge distraction. Everyone seemed to see that from the beginning – everyone that is other than the Government themselves. “I only am disappointed it has taken them so long to shelve these plans which should have been banished to the scrap heap before being officially published.”Jeremy believes that there needs to be police reform but not in the form of mergers. He thinks officers should be released from the bureaucracy that prevents them from doing their job.He also wants Chief Constables to set clear local objectives to cut crime and be given the responsibility and freedom to do so.He said: “We as politicians must try and free our police officers from the red tape which is currently strangling them. I am delighted that our campaign to put a stop to the police mergers has paid off.”