ROGER Hirst, the Conservative candidate, has been re-elected as Essex County Police Fire and Crime Commissioner by a massive margin.

He was 135,634 votes ahead of second-place Chris Vincent of the Labour party when the result was declared today (Saturday, 8 May).

Mr Hirst, who has served as Essex's commissioner since 2016, before oversight of the fire service was added to the role, said: "This is a sobering level of endorsement from the people of Essex. I am grateful that they are clearly appreciating what we have been doing over the past five years. We have achieved 500 extra police officers with a commitment of further investment and with more officers to come.

"We are improving the culture of the fire and rescue service with a focus on prevention and protection. It is really exciting that this programme has been endorsed by the public of Essex.

"I would like to say thank you to everyone involved in the election across the county, in particular the Police Area Returning Officer Adrian Pritchard and his team."

Mr Hirst's majority in the first round of counting means there was no need to use voters' second preferences under the supplementary vote system.

The role of a police and fire commissioner is to 'work with local partners to prevent crime and hold their chief constable to account for the performance of the force''. They have a "democratic mandate" to respond to local people's concerns and can set local forces' priorities and their local budgets.

When the county's first police commissioner, Nick Alston, was elected in 2012 (just pipping independent former police officer Mick Thwaites) he told the media he intended to keep the running costs of the department down.

It is a pledge that critics of the commissioner system ridicule now as the Essex office has grown to having a staff of 19 people and costs more than £1.3 million a year.

It has been described by critics as typical of the growing levels of unaccountable political bureaucracy in the UK's local government system.

Formerly the check system on police and fire departments was a committee of elected councillors from across the regions served by the forces.

Mr Hirst, first elected in succession to Mr Alston, is on a salary of £85,000 and he now has highly paid deputies and a raft of expensive officers including his own media team.

The full result:

Roger Hirst (Con) 235,346

Jon Whitehouse (Lib Dem) 58,131.