West Mercia PCC election: Bill Longmore wins

Independent Bill Longmore has won the election for West Mercia's first police and crime commissioner.

After the second round of counting Mr Longmore gained a total of 71,955 votes, compared with 54,499 for Conservative Adrian Blackshaw.

Labour's Dr Simon Murphy was eliminated after the first round.

Mr Longmore is due to take over the post on 22 November and will be responsible for holding the force to account.

The former police officer will set policing priorities and work with Chief Constable David Shaw to manage the force's £200m budget.

Facing tough savings targets, Mr Longmore said he was "under no illusions" as to the "challenge" he faced as PCC.

He said: "I believe that everyone has good ideas and as a commissioner it's up to me to sort the good ideas out and put them to work for the people.

"When David Cameron said about the office of commissioner he said he wanted to see a man of the people, someone who has done something, and I put myself forward as someone who comes in that category."

£20,000 pledge

A retired businessman from Hanwood, near Shrewsbury, 74-year-old Mr Longmore also spent 30 years working for the Staffordshire force, finishing as a superintendent.

He said the election result showed "people don't really want politics in the police".

Chief Constable David Shaw said he looked forward to "building a positive, professional working relationship with Mr Longmore as we enter an unprecedented period of change, challenge and opportunity".

During the campaign, Mr Longmore pledged to donate £20,000 of his £75,000 PCC salary to charity, in order to support victims of crime and crime prevention projects.

After the first round of counting at Shrewsbury Sport Village, Mr Longmore took 37.8% of the vote and Mr Blackshaw 36.5%.

Under the supplementary voting system, ballots for the eliminated candidate were then recounted to allocate his voters' second choices.