Independent elected as West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner

Buy photos » Bill Longmore - Independent. (s)

INDEPENDENT candidate Bill Longmore has been elected as West Mercia's first ever Police and Crime Commissioner.

The former police officer beat rivals with 71,955 votes after two rounds of counting, having failed to pick up 50 per cent of the vote first time round.

During the campaign Mr Longmore, who spent 30 years with Staffordshire Police, promised to ensure local policing teams were properly resourced, tackle anti-social behaviour and improve the relationship between the police and partner organisations such as the council, community and voluntary sector.

He also pledged to monitor police numbers and challenge the Government on cuts which compromise the effective delivery of frontline policing.

He left Labour candidate Dr Simon Murphy eliminated after the first round with only 34,652 votes. The second round of voting saw Conservative candidate Adrian Blackshaw come second with 54,499 votes.

Earlier, Mr Blackshaw had won the most votes in Wychavon for the Police and Crime Commissioner election.

He picked up 6,487 votes beating Mr Longmore by 1,069 votes while Dr Murphy, followed last with 2,508.

Despite the fact Dr Murphy had come first in Worcester and Redditch, he failed to win support across the rest of Worcestershire and the majority of West Mercia.

In the city, Dr Murphy received the most votes with 4,167 originally beating Mr Longmore by 604 votes. Mr Blackshaw came last with 2,949 votes.

The vote has been held amid the worst turnout in the UK's history, something which was echoed across Wychavon District where only 14,881 people voted.

Just 15.92 per cent of the eligible population cast their vote either in person or by post in Thursday's poll and a total of 468 ballots across the district were also spoilt

Nationally turnout is predicted as just 18.5 per cent, a record low. The Electoral Reform Society has described the election as a 'comedy of errors'.

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