Crime czar snubs call to quit council posts

The Hemel Hempstead branch of UKIP is calling on Hertfordshire’s new crime czar to resign from the two councillor posts he continues to hold after being elected as the county’s police and crime commissioner.

“He should resign as a Hertfordshire county councillor and a Dacorum borough councillor,” said Noel Swinford, UKIP’s branch press officer in Hemel Hempstead.

“He should be a full-time police and crime commissioner because you can’t have three jobs.”

The UKIP branch has lodged a Freedom of Information request with the PCC’s office, asking it to “account for this behaviour”.

Mr Swinford reckons UKIP would do a “better job” of representing the people in Councillor Lloyd’s wards if he were to resign and force by-elections.

But Mr Lloyd, who said he was “getting fed up” with people raising the issue, insisted that his holding two council seats at the same time as being a PCC has been independently evaluated and cleared.

And he reckons that being a councillor at the same time as being PCC actually helps him do a better job.

“My job is to bring people together,” he said

“It is easier for me as a county councillor to arrange meetings with people in the council than it would be if I was trying to do it as PCC.”

Mr Lloyd, who lives in Flamstead, urged voters to judge him on his record after his first term as PCC, and he is confident that people will have been impressed when the job next comes up for election.

He added that he has employed a deputy with specialist knowledge of issues in order to help bring crime down in Hertfordshire.