The WLGA has today welcomed the decision by the Home Secretary to
abandon her plans to have directly elected police authority members
across Wales and England.

This follows strong opposition from across local government, both in
Wales and England and particularly amongst the police authorities who
argued that the plans were overly bureaucratic, costly and could result
in the election of single issue candidates or even extremist
candidates.

Under the current system police authorities are made up of councillors
appointed by their own authority as well as magistrates and other
independent members. However, under this new plan all councillors with
except for one on every police authority would have been replaced with
directly elected Crime and Policing Representatives (CPR’S) - a plan
that was unanimously rejected by every local and police authority in
Wales.

Cllr John Davies (Pembrokeshire), WLGA Leader said:

“This is excellent news for communities across Wales. Local government
has always maintained that this was a half-baked proposal. The
introduction of direct elections would have undermined the strength of
the current system in Wales. Not only would it have added another level
of unnecessary and extremely costly bureaucracy to an already
cumbersome policing system but it would have devalued the legitimate
role of the local council which already has the democratic mandate to
deliver services that meet local community needs. Sidelining the role
of democratically elected councillors could have proved to be a recipe
for disaster, particularly if police authorities and councils were to
work to different local political agendas.”

Councillor Lindsay Whittle (Caerphilly), WLGA Spokesperson for Equality and Social Justice said:

“This is absolutely the right decision by the Home Secretary. There was
real potential for extremist candidates to gain control over policing,
which must be firmly resisted.”

The Home Secretary is still committed to reforming the Police across
Wales and England in a bid to make it more accountable and has asked
former Home Secretary David Blunkett to prepare a report which he will
present to her before the next general election for proposals to go in
a manifesto.