WARWICKSHIRE Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe has welcomed news the postponement of local elections in England due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The government announcement on Friday means the police and crime commissioner elections, held every four years up and down the country and which were due to be held on May 7, will now take place in May 2021.
Mr Seccombe said: “This is the only sensible decision that could have been made, given that the country is currently dealing with a significant public health emergency. Local authorities rightly need to place their focus on working on the response to the coronavirus pandemic and it would be wrong to ask voters to go the polls under the current circumstances.
“While new legislation will need to be enacted to formally postpone the elections and we are therefore awaiting confirmation of the full details, this news will clearly mean that my current term of office will be extended beyond what would ordinarily be the case. However, the Warwickshire Police and Crime Plan which sets out the priorities for policing locally is already is scheduled to run until 2021, so this delay will have no effect on the delivery of policing locally.
“In the forthcoming months I will continue to work hard on behalf of the people of Warwickshire to ensure that all agencies involved in policing and criminal justice are working towards a collective ambition of delivering a safer and more secure county for all.”
The Conservative Warwickshire PCC was elected in 2016. He was to have been challenged at the ballot box in May by Labour candidate Ben Twomey.
Mr Twomey agreed it was right to postpone the election adding public safety had to be the first concern.
