NORTH YORKSHIRE police, fire and crime commissioner (PFCC) celebrates six months in the role.
In November 2021 Conservative candidate, Zoë Metcalfe, was elected PFCC.
Ms Metcalfe is a project manager for a property asset management company, and was previously a Harrogate district and county councillor.
She has also set up and run a children’s mental health charity.
The role of PFCC involves scrutinising and holding the police and fire service to account on behalf of the public.
This includes appointing the police chief constable and the chief fire officer, monitoring their performances while in the role and dismissing them if necessary.
The PFCC is also responsible for setting the local police and fire forces’ budgets and "precepts" – the amount people pay through their council tax for the police and fire services.
Ms Metcalfe’s election came after her predecessor, Philip Allott, resigned from the post following comments he made about Sarah Everard live on Radio York, as reported by The Press in October 2021.
The politician wanted to become PFCC due to a mix of professional and personal experiences.
Ms Metcalfe said she was first put in contact with the police over her daughter, Holly, who has complex needs and learning difficulties.
“I was really impressed by the empathy and the way they treated Holly and the family.” She said.
Ms Metcalfe's first husband was also an on-call fire officer in Ripon.
She explained that this gave her experience of the fire service from "both sides."
Through the role of PFCC, Ms Metcalfe feels she can give back to these services.
Setting the fire and police precept was one of Ms Metcalfe’s first tasks in the role.
The commissioner increased the Band D police element of the North Yorkshire council tax by £10 per year and the fire service element by £1.47 for 2022/23.
Despite this small increase for the fire service, the commissioner says more funds are still needed.
She said: “We’re fighting very hard with the government to make that change because that could increase our precept money coming into the fire service.
“We desperately need an injection of money into the fire service.”
Ms Metcalfe explained that the government must still approve these decisions.
Since November, the PFCC has also set out her “Safer Roads Strategy”, which aims to reduce the amount of people being killed or seriously injured on North Yorkshire and York’s roads to “as close to zero as possible”.
Future projects include the commissioner’s "Police and fire plans" and "Violence against women strategy".
Ms Metcalfe said that the most important part of her role is representing the people.
The commissioner holds monthly online public accountability meetings where members of the public can ask questions and raise their concerns to representatives of North Yorkshire police and fire services.
She said: “Because you are the face and public voice it’s important to listen to the public, consult with the public, be visible, be open, be accessible – and those are really important.”
This month's public accountability meeting will be on May 24.
Ms Metcalfe has also started a blog to keep the public up to date with her work: https://www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/commissioner/zoes-blog/.
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