SPENDING £100 million on electing police commissioners to oversee police forces in England and Wales would be squandering public money, a police authority meeting heard.

At the full meeting of the Gwent Police Authority (GPA) this week, members discussed plans to replace authorities with 43 elected commissioners for each of the forces in England and Wales.

These commissioners would be voted in for four-year terms and would be allowed to serve a maximum of two terms.

At Thursday's meeting, members heard the Westminster government has outlined a spend of £100 million which would be needed to elect all 43 commissioners.

Caerphilly councillor Colin Mann said: "It's £100 million being squandered, it's not their money (the Assembly or Westminster) it's our money, everyone in this room who pays taxes and everyone out there who pays taxes - every time it comes back to the local tax payer."

Since the idea was first floated, GPA has voiced strong concerns against the idea, saying it would mean there would be no transparency as public meetings would vanish and extreme candidates could get voted in on single policy. It it proposed these commissioners will be introduced next June, but the House of Lords recently rejected the part of the bill which included the outline of these elected commissioners.

The bill will now go back to the House of Commons and GPA chief executive Shelley Bosson said the Parliament Act may be invoked in order to force the bill through the Lords without its consent.

GPA consists of nine councillors from the five local authorities and eight individual members from a range of backgrounds, including business, community development, IT and justice.

They are responsible for consulting with residents about policing priorities, setting the force’s budget, monitoring the force’s work, appointing and dismissing the chief constable and senior police officers and overseeing complaints against them.

Under the proposals, a police and crime panel will be able to call a referendum on a commissioner’s decision, for example on setting police precepts, but the GPA say this will be costly and cause delays.