NEXT Thursday, we’ll be heading to the polls to elect the next Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset Police.

Incumbent PCC Sue Mountstevens, Mark Weston, Chris Briton, Aaron Foot and Kevin Phillips, Paul Crossley and Kerry Barker will all be vying for the role.

Now, the Gazette’s Danielle Morris looks into what the hopefuls want to achieve if they are elected, and how they will go about achieving it.

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News:

Sue Mountstevens – Independent

Back in 2012 I was elected to be your Police and Crime Commissioner as an independent candidate who had never stood for election before.

125,000 of you gave me a combined total of first and second preference votes, which I thank you all for.

As an independent candidate I am determined that party politics will have no part to play in policing.

I want to continue to work with the police in preventing crime.

When I was in Taunton last week, I was struck just how concerned residents say they are about the government cuts into our police service.

We need to reinvest so that the police have the resources to tackle and prevent child abuse and sexual exploitation of vulnerable children.

With extra money I secured from the Home Office there is now a service across Avon & Somerset and Wiltshire currently supporting over a hundred young victims of child sexual exploitation.

But there is so much more to be done.

I will continue to be your voice and be a fierce advocate on your behalf.

We have already helped over 25,000 victims with this tailored support and I have spoken to many who tell me that the service has given them hope and, for some, a new life.

Let me continue this work.

Let me continue to be your voice.

Together let us work with the police so we can all be safe and feel safe.

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News:

Mark Weston – Conservative

I am a family man from north Bristol where I live with my wife and two children.

I have experience as a member of the Police and Crime Panel that scrutinises the current commissioner.

I have been a councillor for 10 years, working with residents, the police and other agencies to keep our streets safe.

Over the last three years police numbers have fallen and police stations have closed, yet the back office team has more than doubled.

The media team has grown by a quarter, the office of the PCC now costs £100k more than the Police Authority it replaced and we are on our fifth chief constable in under four years.

The current priorities are wrong.

We need to be protecting the front line, not inflating the back office.

I want to work with our neighbouring constabularies in order to share support services whilst investing in front line policing – ensuring we marry the best of traditional policing with 21st-century technology.

My priorities:

  • Putting the community at the heart of policing
  •  Protecting our police stations and custody suites 
  • Reducing re-offending
  • Greater support for victims of crime
  • Ensuring rural crime is a priority
  •  Tackling anti-social behaviour and drug crime

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News:

Chris Briton – Green

I am a councillor and former mayor of the City of Wells and I have been selected to stand as the Green Party candidate for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

I worked as probation officer in Berkshire and Somerset and I also managed Turning Point, the drug and alcohol advisory service in Somerset, before managing a children’s centre in Frome.

I have recently retired from Somerset Youth Offending Team where I worked as a specialist drug and alcohol officer.

My first priority for the role will be improving the protection of children and young people from physical abuse, neglect and sexual harm.

Youngsters tend not to have a voice or are able to articulate what has happened to them.

We have let them down.

That needs to change.

Confidence and trust in the police force will improve if we get that right.

My second priority will be reducing drug-related offending, and the risks and harm associated with substance misuse.

We need to move away from this outdated notion that we can win a “War on Drugs”.

Decriminalisation and legalisation should be topics for serious discussion within our communities and with the Home Office.

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News:

Aaron Foot – UKIP

As a local farm owner I want to see change in Avon & Somerset Police. Currently we don’t see officers on the streets.

I promise to reverse the cuts to the front line.

We all feel that the government has cut enough, especially to protected services.

The cuts have also affected rural areas.

We currently sit seventh on the league table for worst area for rural crime.

I plan on making sure all rural crime is tackled correctly and the police have the tools they need.

My following commitments are:

  •  I will ensure that ALL crime is recorded and improve the ease of reporting
  •  I will work closely with partners to stop people with mental health issues being detained in police cells
  • I want to tackle the misuse of drug and associated crime, involving a new taskforce

If elected I want to make sure my term will be one of transparency and community involvement.

As a result I have signed up to a standards checklist on Public Life, which promotes high ethical standards.

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News:

Kevin Phillips – Independent

I stand as an Independent PCC candidate as I believe politics has no place in policing.

Honesty, integrity, openness and fairness, the principles that have stood by me, underlined the 26 years of my policing career as I have served the residents of Avon and Somerset as a police officer.

I am fiercely proud of the independent role of the police and have always been passionate about the constabulary and its ability to deliver the best possible service to the residents of the area.

Priorities for me are:

  •  Putting victims at the heart of the criminal justice system
  • Re-focus the needs of neighbourhood policing, hear what you are saying and embed policing back into the communities, rural and urban
  • Protect the people that protect us, increase the number of police officers and PCSOs year on year to deliver the visible service we all want
  • Deal with traditional and modern day crimes robustly and effectively n Deliver value for money, making sure that the budgets available are spent in the right places across the force area

A vote for me is a vote for unrivalled experience in Policing and a determination to make Avon and Somerset an even better place to live.

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News:

Paul Crossley – Liberal Democrat

My top priorities to make us safe:

  • Safeguard frontline policing
  • Cut re-offending
  • Improve detection rates and provide closure for victims Police officers have a tough job and need more support.

We need to free up the police to spend less time with bureaucracy and in offices and have more time in our communities.

A significant amount of police time is taken up with people with mental health issues who need other help.

We all need to work together to ensure anyone experiencing a mental health crisis is not caught up in the criminal system.

We must allow our police to concentrate on solving and stopping crime.

I’ll also make sure we do more to cut re-offending. Focusing on rehabilitation and restorative justice cuts crime, and saves police time and taxpayers’ money.

In addition, more needs to be done to stop people becoming criminals in the first place. We need to identify and support at-risk teenagers and young adults before they fall into a life of crime.

As a councillor for 25 years I know what it takes to keep people on the straight and narrow.

I’ll use that experience to ensure we’re doing all we can to tackle the causes of crime in our communities.

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News:

Kerry Barker – Labour

If elected I will bring back policing to the people.

I am a senior barrister specialising in criminal law for over 25 years.

Over the last four years I have seen the devastating effect on the front line from government cuts and consequential changes in operation.

This includes experience of the inadequate investigations criticised by others. I am totally independent of the police.

My principles are informed by my life-long membership of the Labour Party but my legal background means I am independent-minded.

Police officers’ morale in the Avon & Somerset Constabulary is very low.

The latest serious case review criticises investigations into child sexual exploitation.

Violent crime is on the increase.

Sexual assaults and incidents of domestic violence have also gone up significantly.

People feel that the centralisation of police resources has removed policing from them.

Priorities have to be changed to produce better policing with better use of experience and resources.

The specialist teams disbanded over recent years should be brought back into operation.

My pledges are clear:

  •  More officers on the beat
  • Better technology 
  • Body cameras for all police officers
  • The reinstatement of specialist teams – to deal with child abuse, sex offences and domestic violence