Recovery under threat
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By Karen Miles • Many of the recovery operators used by police forces in England and Wales could lose work following a report on vehicle needs.
The report, currently in front of 43 Chief Constables, comes as the Government says the police should be more cost-conscious and businesslike.
The Chief Constables are being urged to consider three options: • drastically cutting the number of operators; • bringing in a single operator to notify other firms of clearance work; • and bringing in a single firm to carry out the scheme's day-to-day running while subcontracting the work.
Most forces employ hundreds of operators on a rota basis who clear road accidents and break downs where drivers do not belong to a motoring organisation.
"This report will act as a spur to Chief Constables to actively look at their own requirements for vehicle and accident recovery," says the Association of Chief Police Officers.
The recovery sector is still gauging the effect of controversial new road clearance schemes in North Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Only days after recovery operators called on North Yorkshire police to intervene in the way the RAC is handling the scheme throughout the county, operators are demanding that the RAC should be barred from running two pilot schemes in Lincolnshire from next month.
The RAC took over all the work in North Yorks last month after running a pilot scheme in the area.