All five candidates vying for the role of Lincolnshire's PCC have had their say.

It'll now be down to the county's voters to make their voices heard on Thursday 2 May.

Click here to listen to the whole debate between the candidates again.

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Reporting team: Sarah-May Buccieri, Harry Parkhill, Sharon Edwards, David McKenna, Kevin Shoesmith and David Jerman.

Marc Jones is setting his sights for a third term as Lincolnshire's Police and Crime Commissioner.

Lesley Rollings is the current deputy leader of West Lindsey District Council.

She has lived in Lincolnshire for 33 years and has also worked as a teacher and as a district councillor.

The Labour Party candidate standing in the election to be the next Lincolnshire PCC is Mike Horder.

Mr Horder joined the RAF when he was 16 and went on to serve in the police for 26 years.

The Reform UK candidate for Lincolnshire PCC is Peter Escreet.

Mr Escreet was educated in Grantham and has worked in cyber security for most of his career.

The English Democrat candidate for Lincolnshire PCC is David Dickason.

Mr Dickason is a retired senior police officer with experience of policing, budgets and managing serious incidents such as terrorism.

Sharon Edwards
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Lincolnshire

For all the complexities of policing funding, hierarchies and the emergence of new areas of crime involving social media and the internet, the message from the public is clear: they want to see more of our police.

It may sound a tad old-fashioned to say ‘bobbies on the beat’ but it is key to many voters, as is a rapid response from the force when a crime happens.

I can say that gathering questions from the public for today’s PCC debate these two issues outranked all others to the majority of people I came into contact with.

And all five police commissioner candidates agree.

It’s clear that message is not lost on them. All say it is a priority.

So it was rather predictable that they would clash with each other on surrounding matters that have the most impact, especially funding from Government and last year’s cut in the number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), which, to be clear, was a chief constable decision.

Other issues to emerge, including questions surrounding anti-social behaviour, car crime and making women feel safe out at night, feed into the same essential questions:

1. How does the police prioritise its spending?
2. Will it be able to get more money from the government?
3. How would it be spent?

People want to feel safe and they will be judging the new PCC on whether he, or she, delivers.

The candidates were asked what they planned to do to ensure women felt safe in public places at night.

It comes after the MP for Lincoln, Karl McCartney, called for street lights in the city to be kept on for longer to address safety concerns among students and residents.

Marc Jones (Conservative and Unionist Party) said: “We have already brought in £2.5m in safer streets funding to target areas where crimes disproportionally affect women and girls.

“We’ve set up groups to identify hot spots and street wardens.”

Peter Escreet (Reform UK) said: "Stalking and harassment under Marc Jones' watch has gone up 113%.

“Police spending time investigating non-crime hate incidents means they're not investigating real crimes. Stalking and harassment is a real crime."

Lesley Rollings (Liberal Democrats) said: “We need to turn our streetlights on at night. Yes, it's a council decision, but police have to work with councils. Police have to work with other partners to be successful.”

Mike Horder (Labour) said a more visible police presence was needed.

“We've got is a situation where the workload is so high, officers are being sent from one job to the next. They do not have the time to patrol,” said.

David Dickason (English Democrats) said: “You have to give advice to women and girls about this but also be in a position to deal with incidents robustly.”

The candidates were asked why there were fewer PCSOs and bobbies on the beat.

Last year, the force announced plans to reduce the number of PCSOs from 91 to 50 to address financial pressures.

However, police chiefs at the time said despite the reduction its new model would "maintain its commitment to community policing".

Marc Jones (Conservative and Unionist Party) said: “PCSOs are being used strategically, we have to maximise numbers based on the allowed budget and operational choices of the chief.”

Lesley Rollings (Liberal Democrats) said the public wanted to see more PCSOs.

"People want better responses. A lot of crime is not reported because they feel police aren't listening to them," she said.

Mike Horder (Labour) said: "Marc's budget does make it clear that if we carry on like this we will lose even more officers and we haven't got enough as it is.

"This is why people don't see PCSOs and bobbies on the beat."

Peter Escreet (Reform UK) said: "We need more police officers, and visible police officers. That means less police officers at headquarters and more police officers actually on the ground.

"It can't just be a budget answer. We actually need someone to commit to actually having police on the street."

David Dickason (English Democrats) said: "I was a police officer in charge of a team in central London. One of the key things I found is there were officers doing things they shouldn’t be doing. If I am successful, I will be holding the chief constable to account. I will want to know what those officers are doing."

The candidates were asked about car crime.

Lesley Rollings (Liberal Democrats) said: "The public feel that police aren't doing enough. A major role of the PCC is to get better funding from the government.

"A lot of it is about gathering intelligence and putting a plan together. It will be a handful of people responsible for this crime.”

David Dickason (English Democrats): "A lot of it is about gathering intelligence and putting a plan together. It will be a handful of people responsible for this crime.”

Mike Horder (Labour) said: "There simply aren't enough officers.

"Recently, Lincolnshire Police employed a company to design a shift pattern. They started off by looking at the work and number of officers and they said there was not enough officers to do the work," he said.

Peter Escreet (Reform UK) said the government was spending £50m a day housing asylum seekers and sending million of pounds in overseas aid.

"If the government really wanted to prioritise policing they'd put the money in policing," he said.

Marc Jones (Conservative and Union Party) said it was "no good saying we have no resources".

"You have got to work with what you have got," he said.

The candidates were asked what they would do to protect shops and businesses from anti-social behaviour and crime.

Image source, Getty Images

The question was submitted by a Lincoln restaurant owner whose premises were targeted by youths.

She told the BBC she struggled to get through to 101 to report it.

Shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales have also risen to the highest level in 20 years.

In response, Marc Jones (Conservative and Unionist Party) said £2.3m had been invested in measures to tackle the problem, including CCTV.

He said: "We already have a new lead for retail crime to tackle these issues. It is about visible policing, but we have also secured an extra £1m to tackle anti-social behaviour hot spots."

David Dickason (English Democrats) said in his view the problem was more widespread than reported.

He said: "There’s a lot more than people are aware of, I’m pretty sure of it.

"First of all, I want everything reported and I want to put a system in place which will capture the details of what’s happening in these areas so we can get a true picture of the hotspot."

Mike Horder (Labour Party) said the problem was a lack of funding.

He said: "Lincolnshire is lowest funded force by head of population in the force. The bottom line is we need fair funding from government."

Leslie Rollings (Liberal Democrats) said: "It comes down to having more police officers. We've got to work to put pressure on these individuals to not make it easy to create this mayhem."

Peter Escreet (Reform UK) said: "The issue is tackling small crimes. Small crimes are ignored, and not reported. The best thing to do is to have a zero- tolerance, the problem we've got these days is that shoplifting is almost legalised in Lincolnshire and police let them get away with it."

Sharon Edwards
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Lincolnshire

Criminal damage and offences of anti-social behaviour fell be 12% between 2022 and 2023, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The latest Peel inspection report carried out in 2021/22 said the force needed to improve how it recorded anti-social behaviour crime. It said: "The force is failing to record crimes and tackle problems when anti-social behaviour is reported by victims."

Crime in Lincolnshire fell by 5% overall in 2023, according to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

Image source, Getty Images

There was a fall in burglaries and bicycle thefts but a rise in the numbers of shoplifting offences and those for drugs and carrying weapons.

Lincolnshire Police says these are “really positive results”.

Nationally, overall crime rates dropped by 1%, but theft from shops has risen to the highest level in 20 years.

Sharon Edwards
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Lincolnshire

The Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner’s office has an annual budget of £12.5m

It employs 39 people, including a chief executive on a salary of £102,060 and a chief finance officer on £93,981.

The policing budget (Lincolnshire Police plus the PCC office) is £174m for 2024/25, of which £73.4m will be raised from council tax.

The debate is set to begin shortly.

Each of the candidates is vying for the role of Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire.

Voting will take place on 2 May

Listen live on BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

Five candidates are to stand in the election for Lincolnshire's elected Police and Crime Commissioner, with voters going to the polls on Thursday 2 May.

• David Dickason - English Democrats

• Peter Escreet - Reform UK
• Mike Horder - Labour Party
• Marc Jones - Conservative and Unionist Party
• Lesley Rollings - Liberal Democrats

Image source, Phil Coomes / BBC

Duties include appointing the chief constable, setting the police budget and deciding how much council tax precept to charge.

The PCC is answerable to the public and is responsible for setting the police and crime plan.

While the job of running the force on a day-to-day basis is down to the chief constable, the PCC is in charge of setting the overall strategic direction.

The commissioner is also expected to maintain safety within the community and reduce crime through means such as outreach programmes, including knife-crime prevention workshops.

The role was introduced under the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Image source, PA

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of BBC Lincolnshire's Police and Crime Commissioner debate.

We’ll bring you all the latest live updates and analysis right here as it happens.

And, of course, you can also hear the debate live on BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

The debate itself begins at about 10:00 BST.