Liberal Democrat Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Cllr Edna Murphy on the Government’s proposals to move Police and Crime Commissioner powers to Metro Mayors

But transferring the Police and Crime Commissioner’s powers to a remote mayor, who already has too much power and precious little knowledge of the county outside Peterborough, is, if anything even worse.

“Instead, it would be better to consider a much more inclusive and locally based system of accountability. For example, we had this to an extent in the old Police Committee, made up of councillors from across the county together with local magistrates, to whom the Chief Constable would be directly accountable. It meant the Police’s budget was based on deep knowledge of what was happening in the criminal justice system in all parts of Cambridgeshire. Centralising more and more power in one person is an unwelcome import from the USA and will make policing even more remote and unaccountable.