Mark Burns-Williamson
Mark Burns-Williamson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner | |
| In office 22 November 2012 – 9 May 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Tracy Brabin (Mayor of West Yorkshire) |
| Chair of the West Yorkshire Police Authority | |
| In office June 2003 – October 2012 | |
| Chair of the Association of Police Authorities | |
| In office October 2011 – October 2012 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 1964 (age 60) Castleford, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Bradford University |
Mark Burns-Williamson,OBE (born January 1964) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 to 2021. He was the chair of the West Yorkshire Police Authority from 2003 to 2012[1] He was also the Wakefield District Councillor for Castleford Central and Glasshoughton Ward from 1998 to 2012.[2]
Early life[edit]
Burns-Williamson was born in 1964 in Castleford, Yorkshire, England. His employment has spanned over 20 years in public and private sector organisations, including West Yorkshire County Council, Citizens Advice Bureaux, CableTel Ltd, The Rugby Football League (RFL) and Halifax Plc. He is also a graduate of Bradford University (History/Politics Bsc Joint Hons), president of Glasshoughton Cricket Club, an ex rugby player and a lifelong rugby supporter.[3] He is flat-footed; his childhood friends nicknamed him Wombat because of this.[citation needed]
Political career[edit]
Burns-Williamson was elected to represent the ward of Castleford Central and Glasshoughton when he successfully contested the 1998 Wakefield Council elections, in West Yorkshire. Following this, he became a member of West Yorkshire Police Authority in 1999 and chair of the authority in June 2003. After joining the board of the Association of Police Authorities in 2003, he was made the board's deputy chair in 2009 and in October 2011 he was elected chair of the Association of Police Authorities.[4]
Burns-Williamson was appointed an OBE for services to the Community and Policing in the 2012 Honours List.[5]
Police & Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire[edit]
In June 2012, Burns-Williamson announced his intention to stand as a candidate in the 2012 England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections for the West Yorkshire Police area.[6] In October 2012, he stood down as the chair of the West Yorkshire Police Authority in order to continue his candidacy for PCC.[7] In the November election, he was elected after the second round of counting.[8]
In 2015 as the chair of the National Police Aviation Service (NPAS) he decided to replace helicopters with four Vulcanair P68 aircraft costing £2.5million each. When these aircraft entered service in January 2020 they were found to be unfit for purpose as they were not agile enough for urban pursuit and could not hover.
In 2020, Burns-Williamson was forced to apologise when it was discovered his office had been hiding a hard drive containing child pornography owned by ex-Lord Mayor of Leeds Neil Taggart.[9]
Election results[edit]
| West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner election, 2016 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes
| ||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
| Labour | Mark Burns-Williamson | 260,271 | 49.67% | 35,543 | 295,814 | 66.3% |
| |
| Conservative | Allan Doherty | 119,338 | 22.78% | 30,788 | 150,126 | 33.7% |
| |
| UKIP | Peter Corkindale | 74,748 | 14.27% |
| ||||
| Liberal Democrats | Barry Golton | 48,963 | 9.34% |
| ||||
| English Democrat | Therese Muchewicz | 20,656 | 3.94% |
| ||||
| Turnout | 523,976 | 33.16% | ||||||
| Rejected ballots | ||||||||
| Total votes | ||||||||
| Registered electors | ||||||||
| Labour hold | ||||||||
| West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner election, 2012 [10][11][12] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes
| |||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | |||||
| Labour | Mark Burns-Williamson | 102,817 | 47.88% | 11,919 | 114,736 | 61.5% |
| ||
| Independent | Cedric Christie | 49,299 | 22.96% | 22,577 | 71,876 | 38.5% |
| ||
| Conservative | Geraldine Carter | 45,365 | 21.13% |
| |||||
| Liberal Democrats | Andrew Marchington | 17,247 | 8.03% |
| |||||
| Turnout | 214,728 | 13.34% | |||||||
| Rejected ballots | 8,277 | 3.71% | |||||||
| Total votes | 223,005 | 13.85 | |||||||
| Registered electors | 1,609,615 | ||||||||
| Labour win | |||||||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Mark Burns-Williamson | 2,306 | 76.3 | +2.1 | |
| UKIP | Alison Bullivant | 482 | 15.9 | +2.5 | |
| Conservative | Eamonn Mullins | 235 | 7.8 | -4.2 | |
| Majority | 1,824 | 60.3 | -0.5 | ||
| Turnout | 3,023 | 24.8 | |||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Mark Burns-Williamson | 1,775 | 54.1 | -9.3 | |
| BNP | Rita Robinson | 854 | 26.1 | +3.4 | |
| Conservative | Eamonn Mullins | 649 | 19.8 | +6.0 | |
| Majority | 921 | 28.0 | -12.7 | ||
| Turnout | 3,278 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Mark Burns-Williamson | 2,797 | |||
| Labour | Anthony Wallis | 2,692 | |||
| Labour | Denise Jeffery | 2,286 | |||
| BNP | Rita Robinson | 948 | |||
| Conservative | Stanley Hick | 507 | |||
| Conservative | Val Moorey | 484 | |||
| Conservative | Joan Revitt | 483 | |||
| Turnout | 10,197 | 36.7 | |||
References[edit]
- ^ "OBE in New Year Honours for Chair (31 Dec 2011) | West Yorkshire Police". Archived from the original on 8 June 2012.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "About Mark - The Police & Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire". West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Chair of Police Authority Collects OBE (23 Feb 2012) | West Yorkshire Police". Archived from the original on 8 June 2012.
- ^ "Mark to stand as police boss - More local news - Pontefract and Castleford Express". Archived from the original on 25 June 2012.
- ^ "Our Members | West Yorkshire Police". Archived from the original on 12 March 2012.
- ^ "Police and Crime Commissioner Election results 2012". Wakefield Council. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- ^ "Sex offender's hard drive in police commissioner's safe for 14 years". BBC News. 12 March 2020.
- ^ "First Count Result" (PDF). Wakefield Council.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Certificate of Final Result" (PDF). Wakefield Council.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire – election results". Wakefield Council. Archived from the original on 18 November 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2012.