SIR – The Worcester News and everybody in the West Mercia area are rightly outraged by the newly elected police and crime commissioner’s appointment of a friend to be his deputy at a cost of £75,000 (£50,000 salary plus perks and costs).
Given that Mr Longmore is already well into his 70s, it was always unlikely he could ever provide the dynamic leadership such a huge job demands, particularly since he has no experience of such, so it is possible this his deputy – unelected and unaccountable to anybody – could soon be running the force.
People elected Mr Longmore simply because he was the only independent candidate. They didn’t want a party person – fair enough, that is democracy, even though they would have been more independent than Mr Longmore will and can ever be.
People have been fooled. He was a police officer for 30 years and his friend has also been a long serving police officer, hardly the kind of people able or willing to be independent when running an organisation of police officers.
He will achieve nothing.
It is such a shame that this grotesque cronyism and abuse of public money have manifested themselves so soon, literally, within just a few weeks of him being elected.
ALAN AMOS
County councillor for Gorse Hill and Warndon City councillor for Warndon
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