SIR – I do not know how many people voted for Bill Longmore in the recent election for police and crime commissioner.

Not many voted anyway for any candidate. But this was supposed to be a new start, a fresh post where ordinary people’s concerns could be voiced and taken into account.

A break from the old, seemingly unaccountable system where we felt we had no stake in policing our areas and a break in the system of unelected, faceless cronyism which preceded it.

Supposedly, Mr Longmore signed up for this new dawn.

At least that was the impression he (via his campaign manager Barrie Sheldon and personally) gave us all in his statements before the election.

So as he supposedly signed up for a new start, he should now fully explain to us all why he has apparently betrayed those who voted for him, as well as his declared principles, by giving his ‘mate’, ‘buddy’ or just his campaign manager a cushy deputy post before he even has his own feet under his new table.

Before he can reasonably be expected to even fully grasp how the new role will pan out.

How does he even know he needs a deputy? What specific roles will take up 60 hours a week, as Mr Sheldon says? Why isn’t a proper recruitment system warranted – his own election was one after all.

And to top it all off, when the Worcester News has the temerity to ask a few questions, the conduit for public opinion, as well as the deputy conduit, fall silent.

I think it stinks, Mr Longmore. He was elected for accountability – not to award posts with the wave of the hand like a modern-day Roman emperor.

He appears to be failing us before he has even started.

RICHARD FARRELL-ADAMS

Worcester