ALTHOUGH polling does not take place until May, a Conservative ex-copper is already on the election beat.

Stewart Hay hopes to succeed Vera Baird as Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria, and has launched a consultation in Tynedale to gauge views about police and crime along the Tyne Valley to help form part of the Conservative campaign for spring’s PCC elections.

Mr Hay, who is supported by Hexham’s MP Guy Opperman, said: “I want to be elected as Northumbria’s PCC so I can keep hardworking people and their families across the North-East safe and secure.

“But I want to know exactly what issues are concerning people in Hexham so I can campaign to make things better for them. I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to complete the survey.”

Mr Hay, who is currently working as a criminal law consultant solicitor in the North-East, spent 30 years as an officer in Northumbria Police, before retiring at the rank of detective inspector in 2007.