A LIB Dem candidate has entered the fray to become Cambridgeshire’s first police commissioner

Rupert Moss-Eccardt, a former county councillor, was the only candidate to put his name forward following a trawl of potential candidates.

Local Lib Dems had advertised in their party’s weekly paper and Mr Moss-Eccardt was the only candidate to come forward.

However he must wait for confirmation until Wednesday when a ballot of members will either accept him as a candidate or vote for other names to step forward.

Mr Moss-Eccardt, 47, of Queen Adelaide near Ely, believes other candidates may have been put off “when they heard I’d put my hat in the ring. They probably thought they couldn’t do better”.

Mr Moss- Eccardt says if adopted he is confident of at the very least not losing the �5,000 deposit each candidate must find and will only be returned if they secure at least five per cent of the vote.

“It is inevitable with the way the police commissioner thing was set up that good quality independents would not stand a chance,” he said. “The deposit and then probably around �50,000 to fight the election means many good candidates have already had to give up.”

He said his party still though the police commissioner role was wrong but the Lib Dems in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough felt that it would be equally wrong not to give their members an opportunity to support a party candidate.

Asked if he felt it was inevitable Conservative candidate Sir Graham Bright would win he said that “in the scheme of things and the way money works he has a good head start. Cambridgeshire is definitely very Conservative”.

Mr Moss-Eccardt said those voting for him would be supporting “an energetic and committed person with a reputation for getting things done”. He also used to do “policing stuff” having worked for a Home Office programme that trained police both in this country and abroad.