FORMER police chief and Tory candidate John Dwyer has been elected as Cheshire’s Police Commissioner beating Labour’s John Stockton after the second vote..
The crime commissioner vote went through to a second preference between Tory candidate John Dwyer (pictured right) and Labour’s John Stockton (left).
The second preferences votes came into play after Liberal Democrat’s Ainsley Arnold, UKIP’s Louise Bours and independent Sarah Flannery bowed out of the election race.
In Warrington the turn out was just 13.33 per cent with just 14.08 per cent for the whole of Cheshire.
Mr Dwyer retired 11 years ago as Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire Constabulary, after a 30-year career in the police.
Since retirement he has run several of his own businesses including a corporate security consultancy and investigation company.
He was a councillor on Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council before its move into the Cheshire East authority.
He produced a six-point manifesto, including increasing the number of special constables, cutting bureaucracy and zero tolerance for “yobbish behaviour”.
He won with 48,591 initial and secondary votes compared to Labour’s John Stockon who had a combined total of 37,350.
A total of 2,415 votes were rejected either from incorrect voting or the ballot paper being spoiled.
Full results
John Dwyer (Con) 40,122 8,469 48,591 (e)
John Stockton (Lab) 30,974 6,376 37,350
Sarah Flannery (Ind) 18,596
Ainsley Arnold (LD) 10,653
Louise Bours (UKIP) 8,557
11 Comments
5% of the electorate voted for him as a first choice – he does not have an electoral mandate.
Yes he does he got the most votes.
Tories whinge that strike ballots should not be valid if less than 50% of the union memebership votes in favour – by that logic 5% of the electorate is not an electoral mandate.
Then they should have voted then should’nt they? thats what democracy is all about is’nt it?
The turnout nationally never mind locally was so low the Electoral Reform Society is raising questions about the validity of it. There is no doubt a less than 15% turnout with candidates only eventually being selected after two and three counts places the eventual PCC in a very shaky position as far as being able to claim mandate is concerned.
It is a wonder any one voted due to the lack of information that went out to residents
A farce from start to finish !!!! £ 100 million was spent by the government upon promoting this sham…. the reward ?? £85,000 salary for each successful candidate. No wonder so many were keen to hang up their political posts in exchange for a great salary and for what ?? the public are clearly not interested as many of them are busy worrying about surviving day to day and meeting the ever growing costs of just paying the essentials ….
The only “good” thing to come out of this fiasco, which was forecast to be just that, is the sizable number of political candidates who fell by the wayside, including John Prescott. But politicians by their very nature have an inbred feeling they always know what is best for the public good and will take advice from no one.
The salary range is £65,000 to £100,000, the salary for the Cheshire PCC is £75,000, whilst the PCC for Manchester ( the former Labour MP for Manchester Central, Tony Lloyd) will be £100,000. Alas those PCCs for Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria
Warwickshire & Dyfed-Powys will have to “struggle” by on £65,000. As a comparison, salaries for Chief Constables are in the range, £130,044 to £181,455. It is worth noting that 8 PCCs will be drawing a police pension in addition to their PCC salary, a number of PCCs are former Police Authority Chairmen, the majority are male and all are white.
Personally I would have preferred to see a major reorganisation and merger of many police forces in England & Wales prior to any PCC elections. I did however vote in these elections, and wish the successful candidate well. Indeed when I voted, and observed that I had missed the rush, the polling clerks observed that they had too !
With regards to future PCC elections, the next will be in May 2016, but if for example any political party feels that PCCs should be scrapped they could have such a pledge in their 2015 general election manifesto, and if elected, the 2016 PCC elections and the roles themselves could be scrapped.
A cheeky question Paul, but did you vote for the ex-police chief on a police pension (pretty sizeable too I imagine; especially given his previous role) into the £75,000 a year job, who also just happened to be a tory? Or did you vote against your political affiliations?….. Personally I didn’t vote as there was no UKIP candidate!!
I thought this post was supposed to be party political neutral?