Low turn out for police and crime commissioner election

Bob Jones. (s)

JUST 12 per cent of Silhillians voted in the election for the first Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands.

Labour's Bob Jones was elected after receiving 117,388 votes across the region once first and second preferences were taken into account.

Matt Bennett, the Conservative candidate, was second with 55,685 votes.

In the borough the poor turn out of 12.5 per cent included 536 invalid votes from the 19,830 cast.

Mr Bennett received the largest share in Solihull with 7,438 votes and Mr Jones secured 4,555 votes after first and second preferences were counted.

The full results for Solihull after the first round were: Matt Bennett (Con) 5,772, Bill Etheridge (UKIP) 1,540, Cath Hannon (Ind) 4,478, Bob Jones (Lab) 3,603, Ayoub Khan (LD) 650, Mike Rumble (Ind) 1,501, Derek Webley (Ind) 1,750.

Across the West Midlands turn out was slightly over 12 per cent with 238,384 people voting.

Chief Constable Chris Sims has welcomed Commissioner Jones to the job.

He said: "I would like to congratulate Bob Jones on being elected as the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner.

"We are entering a new era for policing governance and I am confident that we will be able to build on recent successes.

"I will be meeting with Commissioner Jones in his capacity as PCC over the coming days to discuss how we can start to shape our plans for working together."

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