Lib Dem PCC candidate tours Northumberland towns

Liberal Democrat Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Peter Andras has been on a tour of towns in Northumberland to talk with local residents about their policing needs and priorities.

Peter Andras visited a total of eight towns across the county, stretching from Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north to Blyth in the south. In each town he visited, Peter met with local County and Town Councillors, campaigners and members of the public to find out what he, as their elected PCC, could do to improve the policing service they receive.

Peter said:

“It was very helpful to meet with elected Councillors, campaigners and members of the public in communities up and down Northumberland."

“The point of the elected PCC, which both the Labour
and Tory candidates have not seemed to grasp, is to act as a bridge between the police and the communities they serve – not to try to organise how the police works, by kind-of aiming to be between the Chief Constable and the police. In order to do this job effectively, it is vital that the winning candidate listens to people across the Northumbria area. It is also very important to aim to make possible the improved democratic scrutiny of the police by gathering sufficiently detailed information about the police, channeling this to local communities, and fully supporting the scrutiny of the PCC and the police by the Police and Crime Panel."

“Berwick being the northernmost corner of Northumberland, it was the perfect town in which to start my fact-finding tour. I wanted to reassure the people of North Northumberland, and indeed the rest of the county, that a Liberal Democrat Police and Crime Commissioner would not neglect their policing needs.”

Peter Andras has made maintaining the balance between
rural and urban policing a key plank of his campaign,
warning that any interference leading to an imbalance
could have a serious knock-on effect for thosecommunities which see their resources cut or diverted elsewhere.

In addition, he is calling for policing priorities to reflect those set out by the public served by the police, and not to be dictated by a political  agenda or ideology.