IN REPLY to Michael Hugh-Jones (Letters, May 18). The reason why there were 15,500 rejected ballotpapers in the election for the Police and Crime Commissioner could be because people think as I do, and spoil the paper on purpose as a protest of this ballot.

The Crime Commissioner’s post was parachuted in as an overpaid (£85,000 per year) unwarranted and unneeded bureaucrat, to do what the chief of police should have been doing in the first place.

What we need is more police on the streets, not a highly-paid person sat in an office doing paperwork.

It does not matter what their politics are, they are unnecessary.

STEVE CHANDLER Sandford Lane Kennington