IT'S as you were at three of the Police and Crime Commissioner counts in the region today.

Ron Hogg and Barry Coppinger, Labour candidates for Durham and Cleveland respectively, have been re-elected for a second term, as has Julia Mulligan, Conservative candidate in North Yorkshire.

In Cleveland, Barry Coppinger fought off opposition from former police officers Sultan Alam, who came last, and Steve Matthews, who was standing for UKIP and came in third, with more than 20 per cent of first preference votes.

Conservative candidate Matthew Vickers secured enough of the vote for second preference votes to be counted, but tailed Mr Coppinger in second place.

The Northern Echo: Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg said the figures show crime is falling in the Durham force area
SECOND TERM: Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg

At the Durham count Ron Hogg received 50,915 votes, some margin away from Conservative candidate Peter Cuthbertson with 18,797 and Liberal Democrat Craig Martin's 10,060.

Returning officer for Durham, Colette Longbottom, confirmed there had been a low turnout. Just 81,341 of the 458,397 electorate voted - 17.7 per cent.

Commenting on the result, Mr Hogg said: "I am delighted to have been re-elected as Police and Crime Commissioner for County Durham and Darlington.

"The increased share of the vote is a fantastic endorsement of what we have achieved over the past four years.

“There are considerable challenges going forward and it is my intention to hold Durham Constabulary to account so that it remains the best police force in the country for as long as possible.

"This will require a lot of hard work, much of which is already in train. We will need to work with our partner organisations during this continuing period of austerity to ensure that high quality services are maintained.

"I look forward to working on behalf of local people to support victims of crime and anti-social behaviour, and to ensure we have an outstanding police force to help keep communities safe.”

The results in North Yorkshire, where turnout was 22.5 per cent - nearly double that of the previous election in 2012 - were not declared until after 6.30pm.

Julia Mulligan was re-elected with 65,018 votes. Labour's Steve Howley was second with 44,759.

Second preference votes had to be counted, as no single candidate secured 50 per cent of the vote. The results of the first preference voting placed Julia Mulligan in the lead with 53,078, Steve Howley in second place with 34,351, Mike Pannett with 30,984 and James Blanchard with 13,856.

Independent candidate and well-known author Mr Pannett and Liberal Democrat candidate Mr Blanchard were eliminated after the first round of counting.

Mr Pannett’s team felt if he had gone through to the second round he may have won by scooping up the majority of second preference votes.

But the former police officer said he was still pleased he had come this far. As an independent candidate with no party backing he had a total campaign budget of £1,000 and fought his campaign with a team of family, friends and volunteers largely on foot visiting parishes in North Yorkshire.

He said a lot of people he met on his campaign trail hadn’t been aware of the Police and Crime Commissioner elections and thought the government had “missed an opportunity” by not doing enough to promote the PCC ballot.

Nevertheless, he said he was pleased with his share of the vote, which accounted for nearly a quarter of the total.

He said: “It was really humbling; I didn’t expect to win this and was quite surprised to get this far.

“I think the key thing was the message to keep politics out of policing. The only reason I stood was I believed it shouldn’t be a political role.”

He said he would now be focusing releasing his next book, detailing his time as a police officer in London.

The highest was in the Craven district with 14,713, or 34 per cent of the electorate turning out to vote. Harrogate also had a high turnout with 31,084 people voting – 26 per cent of those eligible.

Across North Yorkshire 135,642 votes were cast.

Those vying for the role are existing PCC Julia Mulligan for the Conservative party, firefighter Steve Howley for Labour, Liberal  Democrat James Blanchard and independent candidate Mike Pannett.