Cumbria's new PFCC first day in office

David Allen was elected last week.

Author: Joseph GartlyPublished 7th May 2024

Cumbria's new Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner starts his job today, after being elected last Friday.

Labour's David Allen won the election with 38,000 votes, beating Tory candidate Michael Johnson by around 14,000.

After the declaration, Mr Allen spoke with Greatest Hits Radio Cumbria and South West Scotland reporter Joe Gartly about what his first day's will look like: "We want to cut down on anti-social behavior and get more visible policing on the streets. Straight forward, dead simple.

"We want to tackle rural crime, we're a rural county. Community work is absolutely vital for the PFCC as well, investing into youth work and other organisations.

"Making sure we've got a proper and fully funded fire service. I've been flooded twice and feel really passionately that we need to have a fire service that's fit for purpose and has the resources that it needs.

"The first day is get into the office and sit down with the staff. We'll work out what's what, how it works and what's next. There'll be a whole series of consultations that we'll have to do around strategy going forward."

The role was previously held by the Conservative Party’s Peter McCall.

The full results were:

David Allen (Lab and Co-op) 38,708

Mike Johnson, (Conservative), 24,863

Adrian Waite (Lib Dem) 18,100

First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Rayo app.