The chair of West Mercia Police Federation wants John-Paul Campion to use his third term in office to help improve officer morale.

Mr Campion was re-elected as West Mercia’s police and crime commissioner last Friday following elections across the force area the day before.

The Conservative candidate held off the challenge of Labour’s Richard Overton and other candidates including Worcester Lib Dem councillor Sarah Murray - to get another four years as commissioner.

Steve Butler, the police federation chair, said: “We congratulate the PCC on his re-election and hope we can meet with him soon to discuss his plans for his next four-year term of office.

“While I know Mr Campion has commented on the results of our pay and morale survey which revealed our officers were reporting the second lowest levels of morale in the country, I would like to meet with him face to face to hear if he has any plans to help address our members’ concerns.

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“His election campaign focussed on fighting crime, supporting victims and putting police back in the heart of communities – which is admirable since these are all issues that we, and all officers, would agree should be priorities.

"But for a police force to be properly effective, and efficient, it needs police officers to feel valued, respected and fairly paid for what their role entails.

“We fully appreciate that many of these things are out of Mr Campion’s control but there are ways in which he could help make a difference to police officers’ lives. We would really like to see him improve police officer morale and wellbeing during this next four-year term in office.

“Police officer morale and wellbeing should be a matter of urgency and high up on this list of things needed to be done.”