GWENT Police Authority has begun moves to prepare the region for elected police commissioners.

But the decision to establish a transition board came admit continued criticism of the proposals.

The UK Government wants to scrap police authorities and replace them with directly elected commissioners – the idea was defeated by the House of Lords in May but looks set to return to the House of Commons.

A report to the GPA said there was uncertainty whether the law would pass through parliament by the time elections would be held in May 2012, but given the scale of what is involved it said it would be “prudent” to begin planning beforehand.

The Police Governance transition board would oversee and enable a smooth move to the new system arising from the bill, it added.

The authority opposes the introduction of a Gwent commissioner, with its members arguing elected individuals could present single issues or extremist views without the checks they say are provided by the current system.

At a meeting of the GPA its chief executive Shelly Bosson said that the authority and colleagues will be “doing everything to make MPs understand what the implications are” when the bill returns to the House of Commons.

“This will cost more at the end of the day,” she said, adding: “We are not quite sure at what the benefits are going to be to the people of Gwent.”

Authority member Councillor Colin Mann, from Caerphilly Council, said he thought the authority “should spend as little time as possible on this.”

“It’s a nonsense really but we are stuck with it,” he said.