NEARLY £340,000 was wasted on the aborted merger proposals for Cheshire Police - and there are fears the constabulary will never get the money back.

Home Secretary John Reid may have pulled the plug on Cheshire's unpopular proposed union with Merseyside weeks ago.

But Cheshire Police Authority is still looking to recoup the costs of a massive public consultation exercise and legal fees, which amount to £339,767, from Whitehall.

Vice-chairman, Cllr Peter Walker, confirmed that the police authority, which opposed the merger with Merseyside, was "exceedingly cross" over the losses.

"We have spent a great deal of money which could have been put into local policing, which is what we are concentrating on," said Cllr Walker.

The loss is equivalent to employing around 11 police community support officers.

Cheshire Police is aiming to recruit dozens across the county - asking district and parish councils to offer financial support - with varying levels of success.

While the Home Office argued that more work needed to be done to combat the ongoing terrorist threat - and to tackle cross-border crime - police chiefs in Cheshire said collaboration with neighbouring forces already reaped dividends.

Cllr Walker is not confident that the Cheshire force will eventually recover the total amount of money spent on dealing with the restructuring question.

"If you add together the cash spent by all of the forces in England and Wales on this (£11.5m) who have all claimed from the Home Office, it is quite a considerable sum of money," he added.

"And as we have seen in the last month, the Government has other priorities which they have got to spend money on."

Mark Sellwood, the chief executive of Cheshire Police Authority, confirmed that the £339,767 claim to the Home Office, now submitted, included staff time, consultations and legal costs.