North Yorkshire police commissioner: Women's safety 'top priority'

Zoe Metcalfe is a project manager for a property company

The new police commissioner for North Yorkshire has said her top priority is making the county's streets safer - "in particular for all women and girls".

Conservative candidate Zoe Metcalfe was declared the winner of the by-election on Friday.

The ballot was triggered after former commissioner Philip Allott resigned following criticism of comments he made about the murder of Sarah Everard.

Ms Metcalfe said she also wanted to tackle county lines drug dealing.

She said reducing violence against women was about "changing everybody's mindsets".

"It's more about education and I'm really interested in prevention work," said the commissioner, who is also responsible for the county's fire service.

She said she aimed to work with schools to introduce lessons "about teaching what a healthy relationship looks like."

"The more we keep talking about it, the more we keep raising the awareness about it, the more really good work can be done in informing and educating everyone," she said.

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The commissioner said she had also spoken with two North Yorkshire mothers who started a campaign together after the drug-related death of 15-year-old Leah Heyes.

Leah collapsed in Northallerton in 2019 after taking MDMA supplied by 17-year-old Connor Kirkwood.

His mother, Tammy Kirkwood, and Leah's mother, Kerry Roberts, met through the restorative justice scheme after Connor was jailed and are now campaigning together to raise drugs awareness among young people.

Ms Metcalfe said she would offer her support to the two women's campaign and would be discussing county lines drug dealing with the chief constable.

"It's holding the police service to account and finding out how they are tackling this issue," she said.

Last month, North Yorkshire Police arrested 14 people and made safeguarding visits to 38 vulnerable people during a Yorkshire-wide crackdown.