HAMPSHIRE'S Chief Constable has said he will continue to explore the possibility of collaborating with other forces, following ditched plans for the wholesale merging of constabularies across the country.

Paul Kernaghan said despite the recent plans to merge forces across the UK being abandoned, the exercise had given forces the opportunity of looking at combining certain departments or facilities if it improved the performance and saved money for the force.

He told members of Hampshire police authority how he had received a letter from the chief constable of Dorset police asking to look into collaborating on some services, that could include things like IT projects and administration work.

Mr Kernaghan gave an example of how sharing training facilities or outsourcing payroll to private companies or other forces could all be considered if an opportunity arose.

He said although the merger idea was off the agenda at the moment, he did not rule out the idea being resurrected over the next three to four years.

The Chief Constable added that the merger threat had given the force the opportunity to look at areas where it was under performing and make improvements as identified in the forces' Forward Together project.

However, he criticised a recent payout from the Home Office to compensate forces for the money they had spent on investigating their suitability to merge.

He said he supported a letter being written by Michael Coombes the force's finance director complaining about how the money had been calculated.

As previously reported in the Daily Echo Hampshire was awarded £12,000, well below their actual costs of around £110,000 Chairman of the finance committee Adrian Collett described the payment as lunacy'. If you throw money away you get rewarded, if you are a force that is careful and prudent then you don't."