Outgoing police chief slams councillors over new top jobs

Speaking a day after he stepped down from South Yorkshire Police, Meredydd Hughes criticised members of the force’s governing authority for their “lack of vision” and suggested that some politicians were seeking to degrade the service’s top officers.

But he rejected claims that he had retired a year early because he disagreed with the Government’s policy of introducing elected commissioners, who will have the power to hire and fire chief constables.

He said: “What does worry me about having an independent police and crime commissioner is that we will not get the people of the right calibre to take up that role.

“I’ve seen decisions recently in my police authority by, perhaps, ambitious councillors who want to be that person, which show their lack of vision for the role.”

Asked to give an example, Mr Hughes referred to the authority’s decision, revealed in the Yorkshire Post on Saturday, to deprive the force’s chief officers of their car allowances.

“On my final day of work,” he said, “my police authority decided that my successor won’t have a car – the only police chief in the country that has neither a vehicle nor an allowance. You could almost believe that they want to weaken the role of police chief in order that the police and crime commissioner takes a bigger role.”

Mr Hughes said he had stepped down because he did not want to see a situation next year where a new commissioner was appointing a new chief constable.

“I just thought that was bad governance,” he added.

Mr Hughes, who became South Yorkshire Chief Constable in 2004, said he thought making current police authorities “up front and focused” was a better option.

He said: “I can’t see how a single person is more representative of a local community than the 17 that we have at the moment.”

The outgoing chief, who oversaw closer collaboration between South Yorkshire and the region’s other constabularies during his time in charge, said he supported the amalgamation of forces to save money.

He also repeated his belief, first revealed in the Yorkshire Post in April, that cuts to public services would result in more crime.