Conservative Richard Rhodes elected as Cumbria's first Police and Crime Commissioner (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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Conservative Richard Rhodes elected as Cumbria's first Police and Crime Commissioner
4:10pm Friday 16th November 2012 in News
By Stephanie Manley, Reporter
CONSERVATIVE candidate Richard Rhodes said he was ‘honoured’ to have been elected by the people of Cumbria as their first Police and Crime Commissioner.
The retired Headteacher was up against Labour’s Patrick Leonard in the second round of the ballot after they both came top out of the four candidates.
In the first round Mr Rhodes scored highest with 18,080 votes and Mr Leonard, who gained 15,301, just pipped Independent candidate Mary Robinson who got 15,245 votes.
Liberal Democrat candidate Pru Jupe came fourth with 13,625 votes, but she said she was happy that she had done so well in South Lakeland.
In the final count Mr Rhodes beat his Labour counterpart by 25,408 votes to 20,317.
In his victory speech he thanked all those who had helped him win the role.
He said: “The people of Cumbria have bequeathed upon me a huge honour which I gladly accept, and I aspire to live up to their full expectations.
“I would like to thank the number of people I have had working on my team and particularly the amount of young people.
“I would also like to thank members of the constabulary for looking after us and looking after this process.”
He said his first priority would be to address the saga surrounding Cumbria's suspended temporary chief constable, Stuart Hyde.
An IPCC investigation has already cleared Mr Hyde of allegations of serious misconduct but Cumbria Police Authority - today replaced by Mr Rhodes - said his suspension would continue while it completed its own inquiries.
Mr Rhodes added: "My second priority is to consult regularly with the public and the third is to get across to victims that they will receive adequate redress for any criminal activity they have suffered."
Acting temporary chief constable of Cumbria Police, Bernard Lawson, congratulated Mr Rhodes, who will take up his role from next Thursday, November 22.
He said: "I welcome Mr Rhodes as the new Police and Crime Commissioner for Cumbria and look forward to working with him.
“As we continue to work within an ever changing police force, community policing is our priority. Our focus will continue to remain on tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, bringing offenders to justice and dealing with those issues that matter most to our communities.
“Cumbria has one of the lowest crime rates in the country and our priority will be to maintain this and continue to ensure that Cumbria remains a safe place to live, work and visit.”
South Lakeland has recorded the highest voter turnout in the countywide election.
However, the figure is still low compared to those who could have voted.
A total of 19,789 votes were cast in South Lakeland out of a possible electorate of 83,221.
It represented a turnout of 23.78 per cent.
It is likely to be among the highest voter turn outs in England and Wales, which has seen record lows reported.
Barrow recorded the lowest turnout in Cumbria with just 4,464 votes out of a possible 53,358 eligible to vote.
In Eden, 7,472 votes were cast from a possible 41,587, which means 17.97 per cent of those eligible to vote did so.
Cumbria-wide a total of 64,268 voted from a possible 392,285 possible voters, which is 16.38 per cent.
And there were 8,535 rejected ballot papers in both counts.
Comments(20)
TomHarvey
says...
2:39pm Fri 16 Nov 12
Lakeuk wrote:Generally the UK has about 1% spoilt papers. Other countries (Australia) are around 5%, so 3% is significantly more than usual. Its a real shame that what will be a really genuinely accountable position has been somewhat marginalised for now through a November election forced on us now by the Lib Dems (for it was they who forced it to be held now, even though it is a Tory policy for PCCs) instead of waiting for May
Wonder if the spoilt vote count was above normal, know of a few who did spoilt vote, many who didn't vote. Other areas have reports 3% spoilt vote which if matches here would be around 2000 votes
Guanajuato
says...
2:46pm Fri 16 Nov 12
That's exactly WHY many people I've spoken to haven't voted. Running the police should (actually MUST) not be about party politics.
Adam_Kendal
says...
3:50pm Fri 16 Nov 12
It would be interesting to learn the how may opposed the vote.
onelocal
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3:52pm Fri 16 Nov 12
Cracks in the LibDem party machine? Too close to the ruling party at SLDC?
onelocal
says...
3:56pm Fri 16 Nov 12
Adam_Kendal wrote:2014 votes spoiled
Gazette: Please could you include the number of spoilt votes too.
It would be interesting to learn the how may opposed the vote.
fellsman
says...
3:57pm Fri 16 Nov 12
fellsman
says...
4:07pm Fri 16 Nov 12
TomHarvey
says...
4:11pm Fri 16 Nov 12
"Congratulations to Richard Rhodes, Cumbria’s new Police Commissioner – and to Pru Jupe who won 60% of Westmorland votes."
-- or as its also known, just 20% of the County wide vote
onelocal
says...
5:57pm Fri 16 Nov 12
onelocal wrote:Of course the 8535 rejected ballots mentioned includes those voting papers with no second vote.
Adam_Kendal wrote:2014 votes spoiled
Gazette: Please could you include the number of spoilt votes too.
It would be interesting to learn the how may opposed the vote.
Kendmoor
says...
7:12pm Fri 16 Nov 12
Kendmoor
says...
7:13pm Fri 16 Nov 12
Ben Berry
says...
12:12am Sat 17 Nov 12
http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=QXCV5f3qy
q0
Rowland Frost
says...
7:27am Sat 17 Nov 12
Kendmoor wrote:If your 'single' vote went to the one of the top two in the first round, it is counted.
(i'm saying that because I only voted in the left hand column without choosing a second option)
If your 'single' vote went to one of the first round losers, then it has no option available for the second round, and is therefore rejected.
In this case, 6381 votes were rejected (at the second round) because they had gone to a first round loser and didn't have a second round preference.
Kendmoor
says...
9:58am Sat 17 Nov 12
Kendal Jock
says...
10:02am Sat 17 Nov 12
onelocal wrote:Agree with your post! Pru Jupe, having tweeted, "it should be non-political" did just that, made it so. Then she made untrue remarks/assumptions about Tory candidate Richard Rhodes. Lib-Dems always fight dirty and slang other parties or Independants. I'm glad she came last.
Glad to see the Independent candidate polled more than the LibDem after they politicized the campaign. What with their posters in every garden and the arrogance which was creeping in. Back in October, the candidate was tweeting that she was "so excited about becoming PCC and how confident she was that the electorate will be extremely pleased". Forgot there was an election to win.
Cracks in the LibDem party machine? Too close to the ruling party at SLDC?
Kendal Jock
says...
10:07am Sat 17 Nov 12
fellsman wrote:No surprise there then!!!
I understand that all the Libs, including Farron, except for one lady, left the count as soon as their candidate was kicked out - didn't have the grace or manners to stay on and congratulate the winning candidate - I also understand that the Independent Candidate, who beat the Libs has had the grace to stay to the end
Bad losers, dirty fighters.
jallison
says...
1:24pm Sat 17 Nov 12
However, the figure is still low compared to those who could have voted.
A total of 19,789 votes were cast in South Lakeland out of a possible electorate of 83,221.
It represented a turnout of 23.78 per cent."
Over 75% decided not to vote, need I say more !
A view From Cumbria
says...
6:24pm Sat 17 Nov 12
Surely she was the worst performing candidate in the whole of England.
A view From Cumbria
says...
8:55am Sun 18 Nov 12
Lakeuk says...
1:02pm Fri 16 Nov 12