COLIN Skelton, the independent candidate for the role of Wiltshire’s police and crime commissioner, has vowed to protect the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), at Gablecross, if he is elected on November 15.

Mr Skelton, of Salisbury, a former civil servant and Wiltshire special constable, visited the site on Tuesday and said he would maintain funding for the SARC and seek other ways to reduce rape and sexual assault. Police and crime commissioners are being brought in by the Government to replace police authorities in England and Wales, and will have the power to hire and fire chief constables and set the force’s budget and strategy.

The candidates are Labour’s Clare Moody and the Conservatives’ Angus Macpherson, as well as independents Mr Skelton and Liam Silcocks. The Lib Dems have yet to announce a candidate.

The SARC was established in 2006 to provide a comprehensive, sensitive treatment and counselling care service to the growing number of sexual assault victims.

It has an independent, non-political partnership with NHS Swindon and the Wiltshire Police and serves a total Wiltshire population of more than 452,000 people.

The numbers of people attending the SARC only represent a fraction of the number of assaults believed to be happening in the county, as many go unreported every year.

Mr Skelton said: “This is a first class facility for Swindon and Wiltshire. One of the things I would like to do is look at what worked to reduce rape and sexual assault in other places and see if we can learn from that.”

Read Mr Skelton’s full manifesto at www.skelton4wiltspcc.co.uk