Central Bedfordshire Council holds first police and crime advisory panel meeting - but police and crime commissioner does not attend

The common thread through Central Bedfordshire Council’s Police and Crime Advisory Panel’s first meeting was whether the police and crime commissioner (PCC) should attend.

Last night (January 31), the panel’s chair, councillor Patrick Hamill (Independent, Houghton Regis East) told attendees that the PCC isn’t attending.

“He doesn’t really have to, it’s not within his remit,” councillor Hamill said.

Vice chair, councillor Steve Owen (Independent, Leighton Linslade West) put forward a proposal that included asking the PCC to attend to face questions on his police and crime plan.

“With the hope that if he feels on reflection he may turn up, and if he doesn’t then one of the good people in his office might be able to,” he said.

Councillor Hamill said he wasn’t comfortable with this proposal.

“We have the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel (PCP) to look at the PCC’s annual plan, and they’re the ones holding him to account. We don’t,” he said.

Councillor Emma Holland-Lindsay (Lib Dem, Leighton Linslade South), who was attending as a councillor and not as a panel member, said: “This is a police and crime advisory panel.

“I don’t think we can look at policing and crime in our communities without engaging with the elected representative.

“Residents are concerned about crime and I think it’s quite legitimate to engage with the police and crime commissioner on that basis.”

“We’re not here to scrutinise the PCC,” councillor Hamill repeated.

Leader of the council, councillor Adam Zerny (Independent, Potton) said: “A lot of the complaints that I get from residents about the PCC is the failure to respond to complaints.

“And I think part of the reason why we’re here tonight, and this committee was voted for unanimously by councillors, is because I think we all recognise there is a frustration that it even has to exist, because [if these issues] were being dealt with to start with we wouldn’t be being asked to debate them here tonight.”

If approved, a proposal at next week’s PCP would allow any CBC councillor to question the PCC at future panel meetings.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) asked the council if this meant its new panel didn’t have to worry about getting the PCC to attend its own meetings to question him.

PCP minutes show that only two out of the four CBC councillors on the panel attended the last two PCP meetings.

Councillor Zerny told the LDRS: “Crime and policing is a key concern for our residents and they are not getting the policing or the accountability needed.

“If agreed, councillors being able to ask the PCC questions at the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel will be a step in the right direction and make the Panel more effective and provide more accountability.”