Rupert Moss-Eccardt, the new Lib Dem PCC candidate

FORMER Arbury councillor Rupert Moss-Eccardt has been chosen as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) role after an all-member ballot.

Mr Moss-Eccardt lives near Ely and said that, if elected, his priorities would be to improve phone answering performance and to enhance community engagement through neighbourhood panels.

Mr Moss-Eccardt described himself as the “best qualified” candidate and said: “We want to make policing effective, trusted and professional.”

“We should not try to measure crime-fighting success by the number of people arrested, we need to measure how many crimes are committed and get that number down so we can enable people to live without the fear of crime.”

Catherine Smart, Chair of the Cambridge Liberal Democrat local party, welcomed the decision and said: “Rupert has a great deal of knowledge about policing and will be a very good candidate.”

“Should he be elected, his experience at the National Specialist Law Enforcement Centre will be invaluable.”

Mr Moss-Eccardt was previously head of service management and technology for the Central Police Training and Development Authority.

He will now fight against Conservative Sir Graham Bright and Labour’s Ed Murphy for the position.

Elections will take place here and across the country on November 15.