THE Conservative candidate for Cumbria’s police fire and crime commissioner (PFCC) election has said he is committed to ‘building’ on the work done by Cumbria’s 60 community beat officers.

Cumbrians are set to go to the polls on Thursday, May 2 in order to vote for the county’s next PFCC with incumbent, Peter McCall stepping down.

The Conservative candidate for the election is Mike Johnson, who is the current deputy PFCC.

Mr Johnson was born and raised in Cumbria, currently represents Thursby on Cumberland Council and was the final leader of Allerdale Borough Council ahead of local government reorganisation in 2023.

“This election matters that so the police are visible, and they focus on the priorities that people have raised,” said Mr Johnson.

“It matters that the police are there when people most need them and that the fire and rescue service are available when people most need them.

“We've now got 60 community beat officers across Cumbria but there's more work to expand on that.

“The challenge is that no matter where that community beat officer may well be at the point that they're out on patrol, somebody may well look out of their window and not see a police officer, but it's not to say that they haven't been there.

“We've got more police officers now in Cumbria than we've ever had before. We're up to 1,363 officers. Cumbria Constabulary has never had as many police officers as what we have today but there's always more to do.”

Mr Johnson said that community beat officers had reduced crime in their patches, with anti-social down in Maryport, Cleator Moor and Carlisle East, but recognised that more work should be done to combat anti-social behaviour across Cumbria.

Members of Cumbria police, fire and crime panel approved measures to raise the council tax precept for the police by 4.36 per cent and for the fire service by 2.98 per cent when they met on January 31.

The proposed increase in the precept will see a Band D council taxpayer pay £12.96 more to the police and £2.70 more to the fire service each year.

“Public services aren’t immune from inflation,” said Mr Johnson.

“So as all our energy costs go up in our homes and we see our shopping bills go up when we go in the supermarkets then that transfers over into the public service.

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“Whether it be buying new fire engines, whether it be buying new police cars, whether it be paying police officers, whether it be paying firefighters, and those costs have to be met somewhere.

“Unfortunately, people want public services, and a fantastic police service, and a fantastic fire and rescue service but that costs money.”

When asked about his priorities if elected, Mr Johnson said it was to continue the ‘great work’ undertaken by the current PFCC.

“Ultimately, we’ve got to be tough on crime and keep everybody safe in Cumbria,” said Mr Johnson.

“We need to look after our victims - those unfortunate people that have been subject to some form of criminal activity.

"We need to continue building on our roads policing unit that we've recently introduced just at the back end of last year.

"We need to continue to build on rural crime team, which was just introduced last year.

“A dedicated rural crime team in Cumbria focusing on the crime that goes on affecting farmers and agricultural businesses across the county, but alongside those people that live in those rural communities.

“Cumbria is a tricky place to police.

“it's the third largest county in the country. We've got mountains, we've got lakes, we've got urban areas, we've got rural communities so it is a challenging place to police, but we've put community beat officers across the county and if I'm successful, I will build on that.”