Rye man in running for police role

Colonel Kimber has played a key role in helping to protect Rye from flooding, setting up the local emergency group REACT.

He has a background of one of the military’s top emergency planners.

He is a well known figure in Rye, having chaired a number of public meetings on flood defence and helping to oversee the Rye Art Gallery extension.

On 15 November the public will be able to vote for a Police and Crime Commissioner in each of the Police areas across the Country.

For Sussex the Commissioner will replace the 17 strong Police Authority and represent the 1.5m people of the County by holding to account the Chief Constable and commissioning all police and criminal justice system services.

This is a flagship coalition policy and will mark a major change in policing. It is part of the government’s localism agenda.

During the third round of selection last Saturday Colonel Kimber and five other Conservative Party hopefuls were subjected to a rigorous interview process by 50 party officials from across the county.

At the end he and two others, Cllr Peter Jones and Kathy Bourne, won through to the final round, which takes place at Burgess Hill on July 14.

Labour has already selected its candidate – Godfrey Daniel, 61, a Hastings and East Sussex County councillor. He is a former Hastings Mayor and has sat as a magistrate since 1989.

Anthony Kimber has a website   www.anthonykimber.org.uk   and twitter contact at @anthonykimber.