CONSERVATIVE John-Paul Campion has been elected West Mercia’s new Police and Crime Commissioner.
Mr Campion won with 83,619 votes in a second round of counting, with Labour Party candidate and Malvern Hills district resident Daniel Walton finishing in second place on 55,162 votes.
The second round took place after Mr Campion won 64,514 votes in the first round, with Mr Walton receiving 40,870.
In PCC elections if there is no outright winner after first round votes have been counted then voters second preference votes are then taken into account.
Turnout across West Mercia was just 21.27 per cent, but that’s up by seven per cent compared to 2012.
Mr Campion is now responsible for setting a policing and crime strategy, holding the Chief Constable to account, linking the force to the wider community and setting West Mercia’s £203million budget.
The four other candidates vying for the role didn’t make it past the first round of voting, with UKIP’s Peter Jewell finishing in third with 32,719 votes, Independent Barrie Sheldon in fourth with 27,986, The Green Party’s John Raine in fifth on 14,323 and Margaret Rowley finished in sixth place with 12,914.
Following the result Mr Campion said: “I am very grateful to the people of West Mercia for putting their faith in me, and sharing my vision for the sort of West Mercia we all want to be a part of. It is a great honour to be elected as the next PCC, and you have my word that I will continue to work tirelessly for the people over the next four years.
“We are fortunate to live in a safe part of the world, but I want to build on that and make people feel even safer. I am confident that with the right ideas and resources we can deliver the more effective, more efficient results that people want to see. I will certainly make sure that I am speaking and listening to people to best understand what needs to be done.
“I am very much looking forward to starting work next week. Appointing a Deputy Commissioner will be one of my first tasks, and I would assure everybody that this will be done by a truly competitive process, and will be an open and transparent process throughout.”
“I would also like to thank the outgoing Commissioner Bill Longmore for his service.”
