Letter urging Bedfordshire's police and crime commissioner to stand down during election campaign was borderline bullying says crime panel member

A letter sent by the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel to the PCC was “biased, unfair, undemocratic” and “borderline bullying”, a panel member has said.

Last month the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel wrote an open letter to the county’s police and crime commissioner to raise concerns and make recommendations in light of the commissioner standing at the possible Mid Bedfordshire by-election.

It included the note: “this open letter has been agreed by the whole Panel”, however, at yesterday’s Panel meeting (July 11) this appeared not to be the case.

Councillor Tim Caswell (LibDem, Bedford Borough Council) said: “I need to place certain things on the record, and I don’t think this will win me any new friends.

“For no fault of yours chair, or the committee at large, I missed the Zoom meeting. I was therefore surprised when I first saw the letter and the reply for the first time. I’d seen that it contained the words ‘please note this open letter has been agreed by the whole panel’.

“I certainly didn’t approve that letter, and I want to place on record that I consider that letter to be biased, unfair and undemocratic.

“I think it compromises the rights of an individual to stand in a public election. In fact in my opinion parts of it are bordering on bullying and defamation.

“I also wish to place on record that I preferred the balanced and professional response of the OPCC office and the commissioner which deals with the issue of someone’s, in my opinion, fundamental right to stand in a public election,” he said.

The panel heard that the letter was circulated to all panel members before it was published, but this probably didn’t “quite stand up” when saying the letter was agreed by the whole panel.

Bedfordshire police and crime commissioner (PCC), Festus Akinbusoye thanked councillor Caswell for his “frankness and your integrity”.

“I do believe that what transpired from this Panel was unjust, it was disproportionate and it was a totally unnecessary reaction,” he said.

He added that all the panel had to do was ask three questions and if they were satisfied then it was “case closed”.

“If you’re not you make recommendations, however what transpired was the recommendations were based on an assumption without any prior discussions.

Panel chair, Mr Paul Downing said there were concerns raised to panel members when Mr Akinbusoye was selected to be the Conservative candidate.

And that there was the added pressure of the next planned panel meeting being only a week ahead of the expected by-election.

“There is no by-election, what you do in your own time is up to you absolutely,” he said.

“You’ve got the responsibility for keeping people safe, and we did not want to see you’re going off and concentrating on one area at the risk of losing touch with other areas.

“And that’s why we wrote to you, since then absolutely certain events have changed, there is no election you’re free to do what you wish to do.

“You are clearly keeping a finger on the pulse, we can see that from the updates that you’ve given us today.

“And I think the panel is relatively comfortable with the [current] position,” he said.