Ministers under fire for allowing half of Britain's police forces to order ... - Telegraph.co.uk
The news has come just as the Metropolitan Police – the country’s biggest force – is running its own procurement process to replace thousands of police vehicles. It includes for Peugeot’s 208 and 308 cars, and the Partner, which are made in France, BMW's 3 and 5 series, which are made in Germany. Also included in the deal are BMW's X5 which is made in Spartanburg, USA and Ford's Kuga, which is made in Valencia, Spain. The only British-made cars in the deal are for the Astra 1. 6 diesel, made by Vauxhall in Ellesmere Port, and for the Vivaro van, which is made in Luton. The 22 forces involved in the deal include the British Transport Police, Cleveland, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Police Scotland, South Wales, Surrey, Sussex and West Yorkshire. For years British police forces would only buy British cars until concerns about reliability crept it. But there was controversy when 1965 the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary put an order for Volvo estate cars from Sweden. That was followed by a decision by Thames Valley police to order BMW cars in 1972. Labour criticised the decision pointing out that police and France and Germany are never seen driving around in British-made vehicles such as Nissan’s or Toyota’s... Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
