Independent candidate tops police commissioner poll

4:26pm Friday 16th November 2012 in News

Bill Longmore is the new West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner Bill Longmore is the new West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner

Independent candidate Bill Longmore has been elected West Mercia’s first ever police and crime commissioner.

After people went to the polls yesterday the results of a close-run contest for the £75,000-a-year post have just been announced.

Mr Longmore and Conservative candidate Adrian Blackshaw were split by little more than one per cent of the votes in the initial count.

A second count was then carried out with the last placed candidate, Labour’s Simon Murphy, eliminated and his voters’ second choices being taken into account.

Mr Longmore’s victory and election to the new £75,000 a year post has been confirmed in the last few moments.

West Mercia Police's Chief Constable David Shaw immediately offered his congratulations.

“We are very much looking forward to working with Mr Longmore to ensure the people of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin continue to get the best possible protection and service from the force,” he said. “"Mr Longmore is already aware of the policing challenges West Mercia faces and I will be discussing these with him in greater detail when he takes up his role on Thursday, November 22.

“I thoroughly look forward to building a positive, professional working relationship with Mr Longmore as we enter an unprecedented period of change, challenge and opportunity.”

As commissioner, Mr Longmore will be responsible for setting West Mercia Police's budget, policing priorities and hiring or firing the chief constable, although the force will retain operational independence so decisions about investigations cannot be influenced by politics.

Comments(43)

imustbeoldiwearacap says...
4:36pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Good golly gosh! I've been proved wrong! The electorate were not sheep - they did not vote along party lines! Hang on a minute, the electorate did not vote - not with a 14.5% turnout!

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outside-edge says...
5:03pm Fri 16 Nov 12

And what percentage of the electoratre turned out to vote?

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Keith B says...
5:10pm Fri 16 Nov 12

This is a nightmare.

Await the report of the Chief Constables resignation.

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ctpulley says...
5:23pm Fri 16 Nov 12

With such a low turn out, my voted really counted. Just hope Bill now listens to people in Droitwich and goes for ZERO tolerance in everything.

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copierman says...
5:33pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Nice to see the Independant got in as he got my postal vote.
Lets wait for the 85% who did not vote to start moaning or perhaps they will be to busy voting for some tv celeb' program.

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miff68 says...
5:42pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Although no one except the government wanted these commissioners i am utterly relieved that an ex policeman won the election and not a politician? i'm sure with Bills knowledge of policing matters and his community work he'll give it his best shot and do his best for all concerned.

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DarrenM says...
5:51pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Also how many spoilt ballots were there?

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s1lversurfer says...
5:55pm Fri 16 Nov 12

miff68 wrote:
Although no one except the government wanted these commissioners i am utterly relieved that an ex policeman won the election and not a politician? i'm sure with Bills knowledge of policing matters and his community work he'll give it his best shot and do his best for all concerned.
Amen to that miff68. My thoughts exactly. Good luck Mr. Longmore.

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Omicron says...
5:57pm Fri 16 Nov 12

The only Police Commissioner I have been familiar with is Commissioner Gordon of Gotham City. Let's hope Bill Longmore tries to emulate him and then we might even get our own Batman and Robin.

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Keith B says...
6:18pm Fri 16 Nov 12

miff68 wrote:
Although no one except the government wanted these commissioners i am utterly relieved that an ex policeman won the election and not a politician? i'm sure with Bills knowledge of policing matters and his community work he'll give it his best shot and do his best for all concerned.
Hang on - he was a policeman before the internet and development of modern computers - the time of Dixon of Dock Green and then The Sweeny. Has he any real idea about modern policing. It is a very different world now so his police experience is pretty irrelevant.

If we want policemen on the beat (which all the candidates claimed to want) let's do it and see crime sore. Policemen on the beat means they are visible, but not fighting crime. Maybe we should take away their radio's and give them whistles too.

I think we need to give Mr Longmore six months to see if this gentleman - who will be nearly 80 by the time his term comes to it's end - does credit to the grey vote and use his business experience to handle a budget of many millions of pounds.

Fingers crossed.

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miff68 says...
7:24pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Keith, take a chill pill, he knows more about policing than two politicians with no experience what so ever and have political agendas? no one said this was perfect and indeed no one wanted it, but its here and, i agree on the tiny mandate that he has, six months to a year should show us what he's made of. Lets not hang the man now? even he would agree he shouldn't have felt the need to stand but he did because labour and the conservatives wanted to get their hands on the job and that would have been a disaster. lets give the man a chance and your comment about his age is irrelevant, if as i suspect he has old policing values he'll know the community comes first.

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Jack the Giantkiller says...
7:40pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Police commissioner results announced so far - 33 white males; 5 white females; 0 others.
Hardly a proper representation of the nation.

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RogerLFC says...
7:49pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Jack the Giantkiller wrote:
Police commissioner results announced so far - 33 white males; 5 white females; 0 others.
Hardly a proper representation of the nation.
That is a fair observation. What I can't work out is why the Tory Candidate did not find £5000 to get another 'Independent' no hoper candidate to dilute the independent vote to boost his own chances!

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miff68 says...
7:52pm Fri 16 Nov 12

jack, all communities had the opportunity to put forward candidates, the results mean nothing as the turn out was low. This cant be turned into a race issue simply because if so few turned out to vote for any particular candidate what ever their ethnic origins, they wont have been voted in? no one was really interested and the areas covered were large and candidates had to fund their own campaigns, hence few had the ability to make themselves known in all the areas within the police district they were standing for.

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Keith B says...
8:08pm Fri 16 Nov 12

I'm with you Miff - I know it goes against what I said but I welcome the Independents winning around the Country particularly when I see Political Party representatives not seeing what the Country is saying, when interviewed, peddling the Party lines they had been briefed on this morning.

But I did see and hear Bill Longmore perform and was very unimpressed. Indeed he talked me out of my intention to vote for him!!!!

If he turns out to be good I'll hold my hands up. But I am concerned about his age which may or may not affect his ability to do the job well.

But Jack - a white man in his 70's is a pretty good representation of West Mercia Police area. Possibly the biggest demographic in terms of age range (including females) within the force area and from my observation absolutely representative of the demographic of those who voted.

Maybe that's why he won. Politicians beware of the Grey Party vote - we could win the next election.

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miff68 says...
8:18pm Fri 16 Nov 12

yeh i certainly won't argue your last point
lets see what he can do and if this is to be a permanent election for the future perhaps we can all work to get the candidate we all want, with police experience but certainly not a politician, the latter cannot be trusted, most of the budget would probably go on their own expenses? only joking???

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stevoe says...
8:39pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Waste of time. Waste of money.

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Guy66 says...
8:47pm Fri 16 Nov 12

copierman wrote:
Nice to see the Independant got in as he got my postal vote.
Lets wait for the 85% who did not vote to start moaning or perhaps they will be to busy voting for some tv celeb' program.
Lets all vote for a sham system forced on us under the Labour party and enshrined in law to prevent the current government from ditching the ludicrous system. Who are the sheep now!

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Guy66 says...
8:55pm Fri 16 Nov 12

And i thought Apple users for all sheep - baa baa baa baa baaaaaaa

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Guy66 says...
8:55pm Fri 16 Nov 12

And i thought Apple users for all sheep - baa baa baa baa baaaaaaa

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Boadacia! says...
9:51pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Now you've had my vote sir, I hope your officers might turn up in less time than 3 hours, after a call.

Maybe someone can teach them the unknown wizardry of reading emails too?

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Karl Hunderson says...
10:50pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Guy66 wrote:
copierman wrote: Nice to see the Independant got in as he got my postal vote. Lets wait for the 85% who did not vote to start moaning or perhaps they will be to busy voting for some tv celeb' program.
Lets all vote for a sham system forced on us under the Labour party and enshrined in law to prevent the current government from ditching the ludicrous system. Who are the sheep now!
What are you talking about Guy66? The PCC election was a Tory idea, nothing to do with Labour.

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mauro balbino says...
11:33pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Congratulations, Mr Longmore :-)
To have previous experience and being independent were key. And from now on: zero tolerance!

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thecigarman says...
12:04am Sat 17 Nov 12

Jack the Giantkiller wrote:
Police commissioner results announced so far - 33 white males; 5 white females; 0 others.
Hardly a proper representation of the nation.
Why do small minded people like you have to bring racism into it.

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thecigarman says...
12:14am Sat 17 Nov 12

Good on him, maybe an old school ex bobby will sort out the titty babys that are in the force today.

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mayall8808 says...
7:37am Sat 17 Nov 12

This guy is well into his 70's, nothing against that but i would have thought it would be a younger mans job, i also did some background delving and asked some policemen who have years of experience in their job and they would not have voted for him.

This has been badly managed, had a disaster of a turn out and cost £100 million? what a waste of money, i am with Keith B i went to the presentation the other night so i had a bit more info on who was standing.

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Ajworcs says...
8:50am Sat 17 Nov 12

Whilst I share concerns that everyone has said here, let's not be to quick to judge; the reality is out of three large counties, only three people stood for this job! That was all we could muster up! Quite a farce really! As for other matters, where was the campaigning? I saw no paperwork, no canvassers, nothing! And the presentation evening, when did it happen? Who was invited? Who went? Was it accessible to every person who lives up and down the whole of west Mercia? The whole process was a total joke. There is no mandate here whatsoever and for a government cutting red tape and quangos, to create 40 plus roles at £75k a year plus the cost of putting the election on is a total disgrace. You could have achieved the same result with giving mps a few more powers in controll of the police. I went to the ballot box, and spoilt my paper. In terms of evident direct costs, there was 8 council officials on site and only me voting!

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Boadacia! says...
9:37am Sat 17 Nov 12

They might have used that 100 million to improve people's lives a little, and clean up the evil face of the Nasty/Nazi Party.

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Boadacia! says...
9:37am Sat 17 Nov 12

They might have used that 100 million to improve people's lives a little, and clean up the evil face of the Nasty/Nazi Party.

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uptonX says...
2:26pm Sat 17 Nov 12

Thank goodness for the right result. Hopefully when the political left have calmed down and stopped their infantile and ridiculous "nasty party" insults and other political posturing they will work with Bill Longmore for the good of all.

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Boadacia! says...
2:30pm Sat 17 Nov 12

Or the good of the few, if you lean the other way?

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Graham Price says...
5:53pm Sat 17 Nov 12

So, our new PCC is a white, geriatric, male. I believe our current Chief Constable will be very happy with an ex-plod on board who will no doubt know his place. Is our new PCC going to go for re-election in 4 years time when he will be 79 and in his dotage? God, I hope not. As for his 'offer' to give up some £20,000 of his salary, will that be before or after tax? I didn't think that bribing the electorate was permissible or are we bringing back the rotten borough? This old fool is clearly out of his depth.

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MJI says...
6:25pm Sat 17 Nov 12

Jack the Giantkiller wrote:
Police commissioner results announced so far - 33 white males; 5 white females; 0 others.
Hardly a proper representation of the nation.
Does it matter?
.
It is who stood and who voted.
.
We do not have to have quotas of people in jobs.
.

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Keith B says...
6:38pm Sat 17 Nov 12

Yes - I too was concerned to read about the donation of £20k.

Is it a sign, as many of us thought, that being a police commissioner is only for rich people to take part. It certainly seemed to be. He clearly isn't scrapping by on a State pension!!!!

I'm not concerned about the chap being white - after all, West Mercia is not blessed with huge ethnic numbers so he is pretty representative of the population. But I am concerned about what powers there are to remove him him if his age does affect his ability to operate in the role - particularly if he doesn't recognise it himself. As a carer for an older person (his age) I can see it being a problem.

On the other hand many 50 year olds have strokes and other age related problems, while Winston Churchill ran the Country at Mr Longmore's age so I suppose I'm just being ageist - is that a criminal offence nowadays?

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Keith B says...
6:44pm Sat 17 Nov 12

By the way, what IS his age. I've seem 72; 73 and 76 reported.

Of course Jack Warner was past police retirement age when he started playing Dixon of Dock Green and Michael Mates standing in Hampshire is 78. Is age a barrier to this post.

Actually I think it is - but clearly the voters did not (if they realised ... or did they just vote for the Independent label without knowing anything about him in a protest against all politicians, which I believe may be the case.)

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alanquattro says...
8:04pm Sat 17 Nov 12

Did Shaw really give Telford and Wrekin its own seperate identity with Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire ?. Longmore could start with asking why?.

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Jabbadad says...
9:59pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Oh come on don't blame the winner in an election that should never had happened but another stupid NASTY Tory party idea.
However this was an example of the democracy we have in this country. What we need is COMPULSORY VOTING as in Australia, and proportional representation, and NO I am definitely not a LIB/LAB/TORY/DEM supporter, they all live in Claines don't they?

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Keith B says...
10:11pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Actually I think you'll find Mr Longmore is probably a Conservative. As much came out during the hustings, though I can't find out at the moment if he has or had a status within the Party.

Possibly the more important connection to find out if he is or has been a Mason!!!! Unlikely he'd have reached the rank of Superintendent during the 1980's if he wasn't. If he is, he needs to declare that affiliation.

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Guy66 says...
11:31pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Karl Hunderson wrote:
Guy66 wrote:
copierman wrote: Nice to see the Independant got in as he got my postal vote. Lets wait for the 85% who did not vote to start moaning or perhaps they will be to busy voting for some tv celeb' program.
Lets all vote for a sham system forced on us under the Labour party and enshrined in law to prevent the current government from ditching the ludicrous system. Who are the sheep now!
What are you talking about Guy66? The PCC election was a Tory idea, nothing to do with Labour.
I stand corrected! Still blame Labour for everything else...

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ReekJP says...
1:52pm Mon 19 Nov 12

£75kpa? Astonishing. He needs to be better than Jesus to justify that.

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Keith B says...
5:03pm Wed 21 Nov 12

He starts work tomorrow (Thursday).

That's £300.

Friday .... Another £300

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Boadacia! says...
5:18pm Wed 21 Nov 12

Must be absolutely soul destroying when one can only afford cheese and pickle sandwiches and a flat glass of Cola, for lunch.

We watch, in anticipation.

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Keith B says...
7:38pm Wed 21 Nov 12

To be honest if he does a good job, it will be cheap at the price.

Much cheaper of course than servicing the self appointed rag, tag & bobtail of Councillors and Magistrates that made up the old Police Authority.

On the other hand he is drawing an old age pension too and is entitled to a bus pass to get between police stations!!!

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