Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Ann Barnes will not stand for re-election

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent Ann Barnes has confirmed she will not stand for re-election in May.

Ms Barnes says she believes she has delivered everything she promised since being elected with a 53,889 majority in 2012. And she said "with absolute confidence" that people in the county now get a better service and more are engaged with policing than ever before.

But, announcing her decision not to seek re-election at the May 5 poll, she also admitted she had raised the profile of PCCs in ways she had not intended.

Mrs Barnes has faced a string of controversies during her four years in the post. She came under fire after she appointed Paris Brown, then aged 17, as Britain's first youth crime commissioner. The appointment backfired as Miss Brown resigned from the £15,000-a-year role after making offensive comments on Twitter.

Then later, Mrs Barnes, a former teacher, apologised after taking part in a controversial Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall documentary. Kent's rank-and-file officers rebuked her for making their force a "laughing stock" in the programme, called Meet The Police Commissioner.