VIDEO: Paddy Tipping voted in as crime commissioner

Police and crime commissioner for Nottinghamshire, Paddy Tipping, has been elected for a second consecutive term.

The Labour candidate easily resisted challenges from a Tory and and UKIP candidate, along with two independents.

Following the count at Nottingham Tennis Centre, he picked up 80,926 votes during the first-choice count, more than 32,000 votes more than the second-place candidate, Conservative’s Tony Harper.

Because Mr Tipping did not pick up just over 50 per cent of the vote to win it at the first count, the second preference choices needed to be tallied up.

He then received 8,823 more second-choice votes, compared to Tony Harper’s 7,950.

Overall, Mr Tipping won by 33,644 votes.

On winning he said: “It was a great privilege to be the first police and crime commissioner, but it’s an even greater privilege to be re-elected with a very strong vote.

“We have achieved a lot together over the last three-and-a-half years, I want to say thank you to all the partners, in particular Chief Constable Chris Eyre.

“There are new challenges ahead and I’m determined to build on that future.

“At the end of the day, people don’t want very much, just strong, clean and safe communities in which they are proud to bring up their children.

“Together, we can do it.”

Meanwhile, Ahsfield’s Jason Zadrozny came last out of the five candidates, pooling just 7,164 across the eight districts.

Unsurprisingly, he picked up the most votes in Ashfield, where 3,190 of his total figure came from.

Mr Zadrozny was a surprise candidate in the elections because he is facing serious child sex allegations, which he vehemently denies.

Speaking after the election, Mr Zadrozny, said: “I’m not disappointed, this was never about winning, it was about raising my points about the police.

“It’s humbling because people came out in their thousands to vote for me and I did incredibly well in Ashfield and Mansfield.”

UKIP’s Francois Loi came third with 20,320 votes followed by independent candidate Tony Bates, with 14,579.

The total number of votes cast across the county was 173,918

However, the election once again failed to ignite the public’s imagination, with 21.8 per cent of those eligible to vote going to the polls.

This was a marginal improvement from the first police and crime commissioner elections four years ago when 16.4 per cent turned out.

From the eight districts, Mansfield had the lowest return of just 18.02 per cent.

Ashfield fared better with 21.48 per cent.

The highest turn out was seen in Rushcliffe where more than 27.47 per cent of people voted.