In the bucolic county of North Yorkshire rarely do those elected to represent the residents make national news. Except last month, when the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner made crass and insensitive comments in response to the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer. This resulted in a deluge of complaints and calls for him to resign, which eventually he did.

Philip Allot was the PFCC and his resignation exposed a fundamental weakness of the police fire and crime commissioner model: that removing a PFCC (or PCC for that matter) from office is incredibly difficult to do and relies on them to resign and trigger an election for their successor.

Whether that is the right model to replace fire and rescue authorities made up of local councillors is a question the Home Office will be putting to the public in its Fire Reform White Paper. The case of North Yorkshire may give them pause for thought.

 

Read the full article on our digital issue, page 47-49.

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