JUDGES at the Court of Appeal have rejected a Home Office appeal over the ruling that stopped policing powers to be transferred to the West Midlands Mayor.
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Simon Foster, won his legal challenge to stop his powers being transferred to the Mayor’s office, Andy Street, last week by the High Court.
This ruling was challenged by the Home Office and quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Now separate elections are set to be held for the West Midlands Mayor and the PCC on May 2 across the region.
The Labour PCC said: “I am pleased that the people of the West Midlands will now have the right to vote for a democratically elected and directly accountable PCC at the election.
“I brought this claim for Judicial Review to fulfil my Manifesto pledge to the people of the West Midlands, the commitment in my Police and Crime Plan and to defend democracy, the rule of law and the rights of the people I represent.
“I was also concerned that the transfer of PCC powers to a representative of the government, would lead to more cuts, more chaos and more crime.
“I am pleased that the Mayor’s cynical, divisive, unnecessary and undemocratic, attempted hostile takeover of PCC powers has been defeated. I trust that we can now all concentrate on what matters most to the people of the West Midlands, which is ensuring that we prevent, tackle and reduce crime.”
In November the Conservative Mayor wrote to the Home Secretary calling for a transfer of powers from the PCC’s office to his because ‘crime in this region has more than doubled’ in the past eight years and he ‘simply cannot allow it any longer’.
Mr Street said: “I am naturally very disappointed by the rulings this week, as I firmly believe that a change in governance is required to help tackle the rates of crime across the West Midlands.
“With crime having doubled and West Midlands Police in special measures, I was not prepared to stand by anymore and so followed the process as set out by the Home Office to transfer the powers of the PCC role to the Mayoral role at May’s elections. I have always believed that a merged role – as is the case in Manchester, London, and West Yorkshire – is best for the West Midlands.
“The Home Office must be the ones to comment on how they got their process wrong, my only interest is in doing what it takes to tackle crime and help people in the West Midlands feel safe again.”
