This Thursday elections will be held to choose police and crime commissioners who will replace police authorities currently in charge of 41 forces in England and Wales, including the West Midlands. If you are registered to vote in the Solihull Borough you should have received ballot papers through the post.
This is a chance to influence policing priorities – something that should be of real interest to the village given the spate of burglaries and anti-social behaviour.
PCCs, as they will be known, will be responsible for setting priorities for their police force, overseeing its budget and hiring the chief constable.
There are six candidates for election in the West Midlands region:
- Former Birmingham City Councillor Matt Bennett (Conservative)
- Home Improvement Showroom manager and former Steel salesman Bill Etheridge (UKIP)
- Former West Midlands Policewoman Cath Hannon (Independent)
- Wolverhampton City Councillor Bob Jones (Labour)
- Barrister and Birmingham city councillor Ayoub Khan (Liberal Democrat)
- Mike Rumble, a former detective and businessman from Stourbridge (Independent)
You can find out more about each candidate and their proposed approach to the role of Police and Crime Commissioner here.
Whilst it might seem like an election too far and not worth turning out in the (inevitable) rain to the ballot box at DH village school, the new Police and Crime Commissioner needs to have a clear idea of what the public want and expect from them if they are to have a hope of tackling this issues of greatest importance to the region.
What should the priorities be for Dickens Heath?
Crime is something that DH villagers talk about a lot. It’s not often we get a direct chance to influence how it is tackled!