News / Politics
Tory Mark Shelford becomes new police & crime commissioner
A former Army officer has become Avon & Somerset’s new police & crime commissioner.
The Conservative Party’s Mark Shelford promises to increase visible policing of our streets and fight crime not administration.
He replaces independent Sue Mountstevens in the £86,000 role that aims to be the voice of local people in policing and to hold the chief constable to account.
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Shelford beat Labour’s Kerry Barker into second place with a majority of just over 15,000 after second preference votes were counted, with former Bristol councillor and lord mayor Cleo Lake in third for the Green Party.
Just counting Bristol votes, however, tells a different story, with Labour in first place and Greens in second. These were the results from Bristol:
- Kerry Barker (Labour): 45,973
- Cleo Lake (Green): 37,141
- Mark Shelford (Conservative): 28,442
- Heather Shearer (Lib Dem): 13,930
- John Smith (independent): 11,097
Shelford, who spent spent 32 years as an Army officer, says that he “has a good understanding of service life and the stresses and strains placed on those entrusted with protecting the public and their property”.
After leaving the Army, he became deputy leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council and sat on the police & crime panel where in his own words “he gained a reputation for an empathetic approach and a no nonsense style to get things done”.
Shelford called the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in June 2020 “a shocking example of what can happen when police effectively surrender control of our streets”.
And talking on the BBC’s Politics West show, Shelford said that police in Bristol had shown “terrific, courageous restraint” when the ‘kill the bill’ protests in the city in March became a riot.
He said: “It was outrageous that a mob should attack the police, the very people who keep us safe.”
Main photo: Mark Shelford
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