ANGUS Macpherson has won the vote to be the Swindon and Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner, in an election which again saw a very low turnout.

In the early hours of Friday morning, the Conservative candidate was declared the winner after beating competition from nearest rival, Labour’s Kevin Small.

However, turnout was just 24.7 per cent which is an increase on the 2012 election but in areas of Wiltshire where there was no election turnout struggled to get above 13 per cent.

On top of that, thousands of people expressed their anger at the lack of information about the PCC role, with an astounding 3,500 papers spoilt.

Voters were asked to mark their top two candidates and because none could secure a 50 per cent majority from first preferences, the count went to a second round.

In the end - when both first and second counts were added together - Mr Macpherson secured 68,622 votes compared to the Labour candidate, who got 39,365.

After the vote, he said: “Wiltshire Police are doing well and we can do better. Over the last three years and the election period we have spoken to people about what the public want and I will be taking that going forward.

“Domestic violence, cyber-crimes, child exploitation, these are the things that are below the surface and we need to be addressing them.

“It is clear the elections to Swindon Borough Council had a positive impact on the election for Commissioner. In an ideal world, future elections for Commissioners would always take place alongside local council elections.

“Whilst the turnout has shown an encouraging increase, I intend raising the profile of the Commissioner role.

“People still do not realise the scope and responsibility. If they did, I suspect the turnout would be double what it is.”

His main rival, Kevin Small, said he thought it had been a good campaign for Labour but thought the low turnout showed how little people engaged with elected police chiefs.

“I thought we had a good result,” he said.

“If you look at the Swindon part of the vote only we came within 2,000 and in Wiltshire we were improved on 2012.

“The turnout however endorses Labour’s position that we don’t believe the PCC is appropriate and is a waste of public resources.

“The government should look again at either give it greater endorsement or do what we want which is to find an alternative.”

The other two candidates in the race were Brian Mathew for the Lib Dems and John Short (UKIP), who both got knocked out in the first round.

Following the vote, Mr Mathew endorsed the Labour view that he was against the PCC role, saying: “As a Lib Dem I want to see changes to the policing system, I want to see police authorities, something needs to be done to reform and change the way the police works and hold them to account.”

Mr Short said: “I think I would have been a breath of fresh air to the public to have someone who wasn’t political or had any affiliations or attachment to any party. I would not have been governed by party politics.”