A move in the House of Lords to put the breaks on police commioners being elected across the country from May 2012 has relevance in Essex. Meanwhile, in Saturday’s Independent Brian Paddick, the former deputy assistance police commisioner in London, said that one person cannot do an effective job; even a democratically elected police commissioner.

I agree. For a start, Essex Police is too big for effectice scrutiny of what the police do. We should have democratically elected police commissioners from across and from outside the party political spectrum backed up by professional support people so that the police’s true performance can be held up to effective public scrutiny.

That may disappoint my Conservative colleague Robert Chambers, who recently stood down from the chairmanship of the Essex Police Authority. He claimed this was to allow him space to contest an election for police commissioner next year. That never did seem a plausible reason for his resignation. The moves by peers to change the legislation may give time for better arrangements to emerge for Essex.