The High Court will decide whether the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner office will be scrapped like elsewhere. However, incumbent Andy Street speaks of his frustration at not being able to get on with fighting crime
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00:00 We've got Andy Street, West Midlands Mayor. This is the first day of the Mayoral campaign,
00:06 however there's still questions unanswered for a lot of voters, as we don't know if there's
00:10 going to be two elections or one. What's your take on the latest legal arguments with the
00:19 West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner? So we'll come to the legal arguments in just a
00:23 minute but just let me explain the really crucial point here. Citizens across the West Midlands are
00:29 really, really worried about crime. They want someone to sort it out. It's doubled over the
00:35 last eight years, the current structure clearly hasn't worked in driving down crime and that's
00:39 why I asked the Home Secretary to combine the Mayoral job and the PCC job. That should have
00:44 been a straightforward thing. It happens in London, Manchester Leeds, it's going to happen
00:48 in Sheffield, it's going to happen in North Yorkshire but what we've got ourselves into
00:52 is a process whereby there's now a legal battle over this. Now the quick answer to your question
00:57 about that is we're going to hear the appeal that the Home Office have launched on Friday,
01:02 that will be heard and we'll know the outcome by Monday as to whether or not there's one or two
01:06 elections but if I'm really honest Adam, the process is not what interests me. What interests
01:11 me is how are we going to bear down on crime. That's what your readers want to understand.
01:16 Thank you Andy. All right, that's that one.