Gloucestershire PCC election – Conservative candidate Will Windsor Clive confident of securing win

This week Jamie Wiseman speaks to Conservative contender Will Windsor-Clive.

“I intend to win and I should win”.

This was the opening shot of the Conservative candidate as he confidently set out his argument for why he should be elected to the county’s top policing job next month.

As a business owner and veteran councillor, the 56-year-old is adamant he’s the right man to take on the role of Police and Crime Commissioner.

“It’s an important job and I think I’ve got the right skills to do it,” he said.

“I’ve got years of experience of running a blue light service. Plus I’ve been in charge of large organisations handling a lot of public money.

“During this time I’ve always been good at saving resources while also making the service better and more effective.”

A good example of this, he said, are the nine years he spent managing Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service.

“Per head of population cost the service is the third cheapest in the UK – and yet it is one of the most efficient.

“It is a fantastic organisation Gloucestershire can be proud of. I want the police force to have the same reputation.”

Despite closing the station in Painswick and downgrading the station in Cirencester – he says overall more have opened under his time in charge than have shut.

He believes it is precisely this shrewd attitude to business and cost-cutting that is needed in the role of PCC.

“We need to be smarter about the way policing is run in this county. We need good conservative management to get taxpayers’ value for money, while making sure that Gloucestershire Police are there when we need them.

“I want to stress though – that is conservatism with a little ‘c’ not a big ‘C’. We need to save money in a prudent and calculated way.

“It’s not about tightening the belt. It’s about how you spend it and where you use it.

“This is something that every small and medium business in our county has had to face: how to do things more effectively; how to deliver what the customer wants at a cost they can afford.”

With police budgets likely to be ring-fenced until 2020, Cllr Windsor-Clive might not be faced with making many more cuts to the force if he was elected.

Nonetheless, efficiency savings are still a key priority for the Conservative candidate.

These would come through greater collaboration, building-sharing and a push towards greater use of technology.

He also plans to free up money for frontline policing by joining the police back-office up with other public sector bodies.

Cllr Windsor-Clive says money taken from these “efficiency savings” will be channelled into fulfilling the other pledges in his manifesto.

Among his key promises are preventing crime and anti-social behaviour, protecting victims of domestic violence and balancing the needs of rural and urban residents.

Focusing on the first of these pledges, he said: “I think we need to make it universally unacceptable to carry a knife in public.

“To do this we will need a combination of enforcement, deterrence and community action.

“Gloucestershire police also has a vital role to play, with visible and accessible policing and effective investigation of knife crimes.

“If elected, I will make sure that anyone caught carrying these weapons is swiftly and seriously punished.”

He continued: “It’s also paramount we work harder at providing the right support to victims of domestic abuse. I will work for a greater emphasis on earlier intervention and prevention so that fewer victims reach crisis point.”

Another focus would be an increased police presence on the streets, particularly in rural areas.

“Having old-fashioned Bobbies on the beat is an important part of policing,” he said.

“Targeting funding towards more visible, community policing will be a key priority, along with faster response times. Less time in the station means more time on patrol.

“But we should also be working more with local people who can be our eyes and ears on the ground.

“I believe in a joined up approach and will advocate working with our partners in the district council and social services to create a more approachable, and more accessible, police presence.”

Clearly a blue man through and through, he is sure - unlike his opponent the independent candidate Martin Surl – that politics has a place within the role of PCC.

“It’s really important that the police, like every public service we pay our taxes for, is democratically accountable,” he said.

“Taxpayers that pay money into a service should have say in how it is run. This is the democratic bit.

“Politics is everywhere. It’s right that this service is run by someone who is elected. It’s not politicising the police force, but the fact is that it is a political role.

“I want to make it clear, having a political police and crime commissioner doesn’t mean a political police.”

For more information visit willwindsorclive.org.uk

Next week the SNJ has interviews with Mr Windsor-Clive’s rivals for the top job - Labour's Barry Kirby and independent Martin Surl.