The South Wales Argus is celebrating the scrapping of a plan to merge the four Welsh police forces, claiming a victory for its campaign to keep policing in Wales local.

The newspaper launched Hands off our police force!, a campaign to stop the merger, in September – saying the only way for the police to stay accountable was for them to remain local.

It rallied the support of readers and local politicians, and turned the spotlight on Welsh secretary Peter Hain, Gwent chief constable Mike Tonge and the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke as it published arguments for and against the proposals.

Argus editor Gerry Keighley said: “We fought this battle, against a bullish home secretary and equally dogmatic secretary of state for Wales, because we believed that creating a superforce would be bad for our readers.

“Peter Hain accused us of jeopardising the safety of the Welsh public, but that was just a politicians trying fair means or foul to get their own way.

“How could neighbourhood policing, which is what really matters to communities, be given the priority it deserves if a single Welsh chief constable was having his strings pulled from Westminster by the home secretary?

“While nobody would underplay the terrorism threat or the battle against drug cartels it is anti-social behaviour that is the key concern of ordinary people. The police minister now accepts that collaboration between the police and the intelligence services is the best way to fight the terrorists.

“He also accepts that the Clarke plan was ill conceived and financially untenable.”

The Argus was praised for its campaign by politicians and the chairman of Gwent Police Authority Geraint Price-Thomas, who said: “We’ve got to congratulate the Argus locally for a well-fought campaign.”