Gloucestershire's new Police and Crime Commissioner promises 300 extra "bobbies on the beat"
Chris Nelson gained 91,097 and won the PCC election
Last updated 10th May 2021
Chris Nelson has been elected as Gloucestershire's new Police and Crime Commissioner.
The Conservative candidate won with a total of 91,097 votes followed by the Liberal Democrat candidate with 59,838 votes.
All other candidates were eliminated from the race after the first preference votes were counted.
This included the current independent PCC Martin Surl, who's been in the post since 2012, after only getting 34,286 votes in the first round of counting.
Second preference votes had to be counted after neither the top two candidates received over 50 per cent of the threshold needed to be declared the winner.
Chris Nelson, Gloucestershire's PCC-elect, said:
"I'm thrilled at this result as I wasn't sure what would happen today and it was a tough competition with five candidates.
"I am genuinely very approachable, People can email me or phone me up and because of my military background I've always been a 24/7 type of person.
"I want to thank everyone who voted for me and I'm committed to serving them. But that commitment also extends to those who didn't vote for me too".
Chris has made a series of pledges in his manifesto including putting an extra 300 police officers onto the streets.
He says he has a "zero tolerance for all anti-social behaviours":
"Whether it's vandalism, drinking on the street, littering or burglary. Those are the thing, the day-to-day worries people have that they want to see action on.
"When they pick up the phone on 101 they want someone to answer quickly and to respond to all of these issues and this will improve the feeling of security in our community.
"What I want to do is find money within the budget so I can give that to the Chief Constable so we can go out and recruit more officers".
Rod Hansen, Chief Constable at Gloucestershire Police, said:
"I'd like to congratulate Chris Nelson on his election. This has been a long time coming, over a year waiting for the postponed election from 12 months ago so to have the clarity of who our commissioner is going to be is not only good for for Chris, but good for the organisation and of course the people in Gloucestershire.
"Of course Chris will be holding me to account but beyond that we will be working together. Chris will I'm sure be providing me with the resources I need to make operational decisions and get to work in tackling the issue we have within our communities.
"I would also like to thank current PCC Martin Surl and his deputy Chris Brierley who have been very committed to the county and have achieved many great things on behalf of the public so a big thank you from us to Martin and Chris".