:01:32. > :01:35.In the North West: Big budgets and power over policing.
:01:35. > :01:45.But with few votes and deadlines looming, are our new commissioners
:01:45. > :01:45.
:01:45. > :41:37.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2391 seconds
:41:37. > :41:40.Coming up in the North West: Big budgets and power over policing.
:41:40. > :41:46.But with few votes and deadlines looming, are our new commissioners
:41:46. > :41:51.in for a dog's life? They all have Rostand, no support. It will be
:41:51. > :41:54.extremely difficult to have any impact this first time around.
:41:54. > :41:58.You have stuck with us through weeks of campaigning, all the
:41:58. > :42:01.excitement and in the end just 15% of you voted. Or, to put it another
:42:01. > :42:04.way, the vast majority of you decided not to. But the Police and
:42:04. > :42:06.Crime Commissioners do matter. And today we have one here. The former
:42:06. > :42:09.Labour MP Jane Kennedy is Merseyside's new commissioner.
:42:09. > :42:12.Graham Evans is the Conservative MP for Weaver Vale in Cheshire and a
:42:12. > :42:22.former Special Constable. And Dr Robert Ford is an expert on voting,
:42:22. > :42:24.
:42:24. > :42:29.based at Manchester University. am very proud to be working with
:42:29. > :42:39.Merseyside Police and the communities of Merseyside. Are you
:42:39. > :42:40.
:42:40. > :42:45.convinced the policy was still right? I am. Within three years, I
:42:45. > :42:55.think the public will agree. Next time around, I think the turnout
:42:55. > :42:56.
:42:56. > :42:59.will be significantly higher. key question for us will be why the
:42:59. > :43:03.public responded with a massive yawn of indifference.
:43:03. > :43:07.So they have got a lot of power and a big budget. But not many people
:43:07. > :43:10.voted for them. There are six new police commissioners in the region.
:43:10. > :43:12.For the Conservatives, Richard Rhodes won in Cumbria and John
:43:12. > :43:14.Dwyer in Cheshire. And for Labour there were successes for Alan
:43:15. > :43:19.Charles in Derbyshire, Clive Grunshaw in Lancashire, Tony Lloyd
:43:19. > :43:23.in Greater Manchester and Jane Kennedy on Merseyside. But why did
:43:23. > :43:30.so few of us vote? Our reporter spent a quiet day at one polling
:43:30. > :43:37.station trying to find out. The signs were out. And the doors
:43:37. > :43:47.were open. There was just one thing missing from this election. The
:43:47. > :43:52.
:43:52. > :44:02.electorate. MUSIC. Walk on by.
:44:02. > :44:07.
:44:07. > :44:14.I think it is a force. I will not be voting. I am going to the shops.
:44:14. > :44:19.I'll always fought in general elections and local elections, but
:44:19. > :44:22.not for this. Almost a year ago, one of the most shocking crimes in
:44:22. > :44:28.the region happened on Salford's streets when Anuj Bidve was
:44:28. > :44:31.murdered. This polling station has a short walk from where that crime
:44:32. > :44:37.took place. You would think policing would be a big issue in
:44:37. > :44:44.this area. The Poles have been open for six hours and the has seen a
:44:44. > :44:47.grand total of 25 people through those doors. And apparently this is
:44:47. > :44:50.one of the busier polling stations. In fact, across Greater Manchester,
:44:50. > :44:54.turnout was just 13.9%. In Merseyside, it was below 13.
:44:54. > :44:57.Cheshire and Derbyshire both managed to muster a 14% turnout.
:44:57. > :45:03.And there wasn't much more interest further north, as 15.5% of people
:45:03. > :45:12.in Lancashire voted. Cumbria was the highest in the region at 16.4%,
:45:12. > :45:16.with nearly one in four voters in the South Lakes going to the polls.
:45:16. > :45:20.It is in November, there are no other elections happening. We need
:45:20. > :45:24.to set this against a background that we have never had a democratic
:45:24. > :45:29.voice in policing before. There should have been a candidate
:45:29. > :45:34.booklet going through each door. I got one because I requested one
:45:34. > :45:43.online. But people should have got one by right. That will have
:45:43. > :45:48.affected the turnout. And had no legs -- no idea this existed. I
:45:48. > :45:58.don't know any of the candidates. am floating because I think this is
:45:58. > :46:03.important. Why did I thought? Solemn duty, I suppose. I think a
:46:03. > :46:13.15% turnout is unfortunate, but the job is the job. We have to move on
:46:13. > :46:22.
:46:22. > :46:25.now. We have had the election. Where more than eight out of 10
:46:25. > :46:30.people eligible to vote didn't, at least some were showing an interest
:46:31. > :46:37.in what was going on. This low turnout was effectively engineered
:46:37. > :46:45.by the coalition. When the help this election in November and the
:46:46. > :46:51.Government did not explain the role properly. And the ballot paper was
:46:51. > :46:55.a new method of floating. People -- they were warned it would be a low
:46:55. > :47:00.turnout. We anticipated it during the campaign. A lot of people don't
:47:00. > :47:04.agree with the policy. Elected commissioners like myself have a
:47:04. > :47:09.real job to take people with us to demonstrate that we're going to do
:47:09. > :47:16.a good job and the fact that we're here is now a fit to complete and
:47:16. > :47:24.we have to do the best that we can. Do you feel undermined by the lack
:47:24. > :47:27.of mandate? I don't. The people who should be embarrassed are Theresa
:47:27. > :47:31.May and David Cameron, whose flagship policy Dom Mark I
:47:31. > :47:36.understand it is not your embarrassment. Do you feel
:47:36. > :47:40.undermined because you have a low mandate? I don't. I put myself
:47:40. > :47:46.forward knowing that this was going to be a difficult election to fight
:47:46. > :47:49.with a role that the public either don't understand our don't like to,
:47:49. > :47:56.very suspicious of party politicians carrying out this role,
:47:56. > :48:00.so I went in for a writ -- fully aware of that. I wanted Merseyside
:48:00. > :48:06.have the best person for the job. I believe that have a lot to offer
:48:06. > :48:12.with my experience. It is in doing that job going forward that I'll to
:48:12. > :48:20.demonstrate that they chose wisely on Merseyside. What went wrong?
:48:20. > :48:30.paper was produced saying that the turnout should be about 18%.
:48:30. > :48:31.
:48:31. > :48:40.November elections would mean 5% less. No party election broadcasts.
:48:41. > :48:43.No leaflets. 5% for each of those. It was all was light and natural
:48:43. > :48:51.experiment when you have elections the you don't tell anyone about.
:48:51. > :48:55.The figure was only slightly lower than the predictions. This was
:48:55. > :48:59.predictable and avoidable. The government didn't take that actions
:48:59. > :49:04.they were told to take. It is important to remember that we don't
:49:04. > :49:09.have any money. It would have cost the taxpayer a lot of money to do
:49:09. > :49:13.some of the things you are alluding to. You clearly have some money
:49:13. > :49:16.because you have run these elections and the first place.
:49:16. > :49:26.was not right for the Government to throw millions of pounds at this
:49:26. > :49:27.
:49:27. > :49:34.election. Why hold that? You have now embraced the policy of lawyer
:49:34. > :49:41.have criticised it. In five years' time, I believe the public will
:49:41. > :49:48.engage. They have not engage this time. What you think when wrong?
:49:48. > :49:53.November election, no direct mail involved because of the cost and
:49:53. > :49:57.there was a problem getting the message across. The Government
:49:57. > :50:00.wanted independent candidates to come forward. Independent
:50:00. > :50:10.candidates cannot afford to campaigned in the way that you can
:50:10. > :50:17.if you have a party machine behind you. 12 independent police and
:50:17. > :50:25.crime commissioners have been elected. Isn't that partly because
:50:25. > :50:35.turnout was rather low, to put it mildly? Yes. There was a very low
:50:35. > :50:35.
:50:35. > :50:39.bar to clear. �5,000 of their own money. Campaigns run by volunteers.
:50:39. > :50:43.To say that that was a good way of running things does not seem right
:50:43. > :50:48.to me. If you're going to hold democratic elections, you must
:50:48. > :50:53.engage the public. We know that there are simple things to which
:50:53. > :50:57.the public response. One of the things was holding the elections
:50:57. > :51:04.concurrently with local elections would not have cost a penny. The
:51:04. > :51:08.decision to hold them by themselves in November seems to me to be
:51:08. > :51:14.stupid it as many voters didn't realise there was a poll on. Loads
:51:14. > :51:22.of people did not know what these elections were about. There was a
:51:22. > :51:26.by-election in Manchester where there was an 18% turn up. This is a
:51:26. > :51:36.new policy and it is always difficult to get that point across
:51:36. > :51:42.to people. In four years, when they have a reputation and the public
:51:42. > :51:52.have found that the good job that all PCC's will do, I think the
:51:52. > :51:53.
:51:53. > :52:01.turn-up will increase. The jury is out. The conduct of the PCCs will
:52:01. > :52:08.be very important. There are huge challenges ahead. Most importantly,
:52:08. > :52:12.they're going through a period of the draconian cuts. Local
:52:13. > :52:22.authorities are losing �200 million from the parts of the budget they
:52:22. > :52:26.have been using to help reduce crime and offending. It is very
:52:26. > :52:36.difficult. It will depend on how we can work through the next three-
:52:36. > :52:44.
:52:44. > :52:48.and-a-half years. While we are on the subject of turnout, a record
:52:48. > :52:51.was set in this week. But again not in a good way. Labour's Lucy Powell
:52:51. > :52:54.was elected MP for Manchester Central in a by-election after Tony
:52:54. > :52:57.Lloyd stood down to become police commissioner. It never gets a high
:52:57. > :52:59.turnout but 18% was the lowest for any parliamentary by-election since
:52:59. > :53:06.the Second World War. The time of year is difficult. Some
:53:07. > :53:10.people thought this was just the police commissioner election. It
:53:10. > :53:20.was a vote of all the other parties which has been hugely depressed
:53:20. > :53:20.
:53:20. > :53:27.this evening, not for Labour. is not strictly accurate. 15% of
:53:27. > :53:37.Labour voters did not show up. It is not a record you want to have,
:53:37. > :53:37.
:53:37. > :53:47.to be their MP elected with the lowest turnout ever. Not very
:53:47. > :53:47.
:53:47. > :53:51.intensive campaigning by anybody. Labour were very confident. They
:53:51. > :53:57.were not expending a lot of resources to get anybody out to
:53:57. > :54:02.vote. None of the other parties felt they could win him. If you
:54:02. > :54:12.have a very safe seat with the one competing very hard, then the
:54:12. > :54:12.
:54:12. > :54:17.voters will struck in differently. They know the result. Compare that
:54:17. > :54:22.with Corby which changed hands and there was a 45% turn out.
:54:22. > :54:27.Is it just one of those things that we have say seats and that is that?
:54:27. > :54:31.Should we be worried? Safe seats are something we talk about in
:54:31. > :54:36.politics, but in truth we shouldn't take any seat for granted. We
:54:36. > :54:45.shouldn't take falters for granted. We have to work with the resources
:54:45. > :54:51.we have got. I know that we did use all the resources we had available.
:54:51. > :54:58.In Merseyside, some of our volunteers went to help there.
:54:58. > :55:08.will say this does not matter? Course it matters. Tony Lloyd was a
:55:08. > :55:09.
:55:09. > :55:13.good MP and I think his replacement will be good. We want to engage
:55:13. > :55:22.with constituents as much as possible. The time of year was not
:55:22. > :55:25.great. The weather was not great. So, not a huge mandate, but this
:55:25. > :55:28.Thursday the new xommissioners will officially get to work. And they
:55:28. > :55:38.have got a deadline of just 10 weeks to try to make their mark.
:55:38. > :55:45.
:55:45. > :55:48.This report is on the winners and the job.
:55:48. > :55:53.Here at the Cheshire count, it is naturally a day of celebration for
:55:53. > :56:00.the elected candidate. But for all the new PCCs it is now that the
:56:00. > :56:03.hard work really begins. That's because in barely two and a half
:56:03. > :56:06.months time, they will have to finalise their first budget a issue
:56:06. > :56:09.their first policing plan. And if that sounds like a challenge, that
:56:09. > :56:13.is because quite simply it will be. They have got about 10 weeks to
:56:13. > :56:21.work on this. They will have no staff in place, no support, they
:56:21. > :56:24.will be totally reliant on what the police forces tell them. It is
:56:24. > :56:27.going to be extremely difficult for anybody to make any real difference
:56:27. > :56:30.this first time round. situation could have been different
:56:30. > :56:34.had the Government decided to hold elections in the spring. That way,
:56:34. > :56:36.PCCs would've had a had a full year to decide on their budget. As a
:56:36. > :56:39.former Assistant Chief Constable with Cheshire Constabulary,
:56:39. > :56:45.Cheshire's new PCC John Dwyer certainly has all the credentials
:56:45. > :56:49.to make an impact in his new role. He is under no illusions. It is a
:56:49. > :56:55.tough task. The timescales as you rightly say are very tight, but I
:56:55. > :56:59.can do it. I've got a good team behind me who can help me to do
:56:59. > :57:03.that. I've anticipated this to be about a 60 hours a week job. It is
:57:03. > :57:07.not a job to be played at, it is not a job to be done part-time, and
:57:07. > :57:10.I am prepared to roll my sleeves up and get on with the task in hand.
:57:10. > :57:12.Among the commissioners' tasks will be empowering people into having a
:57:12. > :57:17.say on how crime is tackled in their area. Statistically, Cumbria
:57:17. > :57:27.is among the region's safest places to live. But the force's resources
:57:27. > :57:28.
:57:28. > :57:33.must be spread thinly across a huge rural area. I am conscious that
:57:33. > :57:39.people are suspicious of politicians making promises and not
:57:39. > :57:42.delivering. I will deliver on my promises. The new commissioner's
:57:42. > :57:45.take on their roles amid troubled times. In summer, officers from
:57:45. > :57:48.across the region took part in national protest at cuts to front
:57:48. > :57:54.line policing. Addressing this will be a key priority, says Greater
:57:54. > :57:56.Manchester's PCC. We have got to make sure there is a strategy set
:57:57. > :58:02.forward that can take Greater Manchester Police forward, despite
:58:02. > :58:05.the present round of cuts. But we will be taking the case about 20%
:58:05. > :58:10.cuts back to central government and saying what they are doing is
:58:10. > :58:13.reckless. Mr Lloyd will be working closely with Chief Constable Sir
:58:13. > :58:16.Peter Fahy. His background as a long-serving Labour MP would seem
:58:16. > :58:19.to fit well with Sir Peter's call that the PCC can have an influence
:58:19. > :58:26.on the national stage, and join the force in some difficult discussions
:58:26. > :58:29.with ministers. But he too admits there is much to be done. Certainly
:58:29. > :58:34.number one is the budget and some really difficult decisions over the
:58:34. > :58:37.next few years. We have got to lose 300 officers this year, next year
:58:37. > :58:40.and the year after. I think second is then the threat of organised
:58:40. > :58:43.crime, and third is probably the number of difficult investigations
:58:43. > :58:46.we have got. Despite the low turnout, the Prime Minister David
:58:46. > :58:55.Cameron has claimed the public will become more interested when PCCs
:58:55. > :59:01.begin their work. Officially, their job starts on Thursday.
:59:01. > :59:05.It sounds as though you're in for a tough job? I thought that when I
:59:05. > :59:09.put myself forward. The budget is quite clearly at the core of this.
:59:09. > :59:12.I want the opportunity to speak to the Home Secretary to say that if
:59:12. > :59:17.there is another round of cuts coming in December, it is important
:59:17. > :59:22.she takes time to hear what the elected representatives of the
:59:22. > :59:26.police force areas have to say about those budgets. I don't want
:59:26. > :59:31.another 600 police officers being cut from this Budget without time
:59:31. > :59:35.for me to make representations about the impact of VAT. Part of
:59:35. > :59:40.your job is to work out how the police can be more efficient?
:59:40. > :59:48.will work with the chief constable to do that. They have lost �60
:59:48. > :59:53.million from the budget already and have been doing a fantastic job.
:59:53. > :59:57.They had been able to maintain policing services and keep crime
:59:57. > :00:02.rates are relatively down. What we don't want is to see that good work
:00:02. > :00:07.being undermined by further swingeing cuts that will damage of
:00:07. > :00:12.the good work they have bumf will start the PCC's are replacing an
:00:12. > :00:16.elected police authorities, totally anonymous. If you look at
:00:16. > :00:21.Hillsborough, if the had a PCC in place in Merseyside Orange
:00:21. > :00:31.Sheffield at the time, what those travesties -- tragedies have
:00:31. > :00:32.
:00:32. > :00:37.happened? I would like to think that PCC's will make a difference.
:00:37. > :00:46.In four years' time, the general public will turn out in greater
:00:46. > :00:50.numbers. You think policing will improve despite the cuts? Each
:00:50. > :00:57.authority is different. Chief constables have had it good for
:00:57. > :01:02.many years when the money was coming in. The true test of
:01:02. > :01:09.leadership for chief constables and the police and crime commissioners
:01:09. > :01:15.is to cope with these challenging times. Did the candidates who were
:01:15. > :01:22.former police officers do well? lot of them stood as independents.
:01:22. > :01:26.The seemed to do well. It was interesting because in the polling
:01:26. > :01:31.ahead of the election, people said they did not want politics in
:01:31. > :01:36.policing. Then very often at the polls they will plump for the party
:01:36. > :01:39.label because they know what that stands for. Those who did turn up
:01:39. > :01:43.really seem to have actually gone with that message and look for the
:01:43. > :01:51.person with the most experience in policing, even if they have no
:01:51. > :01:57.political experience at all. It is usually close in Lancashire between
:01:57. > :02:03.the Conservatives and Labour. Perhaps they made a tactical
:02:04. > :02:08.mistake in choosing someone without a policing background? Perhaps.
:02:08. > :02:16.When the public were offered people with a policing background, they
:02:16. > :02:21.tended to do quite well. I had the experience of working with the
:02:21. > :02:26.police. I think people toes be for that reason. There are risks
:02:26. > :02:32.involved with former police officers doing the role. They will
:02:32. > :02:36.have to learn to leave their own experience behind. They have to
:02:36. > :02:44.work with policing as it has changed. They will have to learn
:02:44. > :02:50.some politics as well. This is a strategic role, it is not the day-
:02:50. > :02:56.to-day running of the police. It is up to the police and crime
:02:56. > :03:03.commissioner us to set the strategy. Time for the rest of the week's
:03:03. > :03:07.news now. Here is our round-up in 60 seconds.
:03:07. > :03:11.A proposed by a mass incinerator was the burning issue in Greater
:03:11. > :03:19.Manchester this week. A public inquiry is looking into the
:03:19. > :03:29.council's decision to reject plans. Rochdale MP says they should
:03:29. > :03:35.
:03:35. > :03:45.investigate Cyril Smith over A new scheme is underway to keep
:03:45. > :03:48.
:03:48. > :03:57.local people in the Lake District. Isle of Man Treasury figures show
:03:57. > :04:01.no films made on the island has made a profit.
:04:01. > :04:05.The planned column of steam meant to be installed last year in