Alison Hernandez faces calls to “consider her position” from chair of Devon and Cornwall police and crime panel.

Major mistake sparks worry.

Alison Stephenson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

The police and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall Alison Hernandez should be “considering her position”, after she incorrectly told a crime panel that the remains of multiple bodies had been found in a Cornish woodland, says its chair.

Cllr Sally Haydon (Lab, St Budeaux), who heads the Devon and Cornwall police and crime panel, said the blunder was a “yet another serious mistake” by the commissioner, who came under criticism last year for going against the wishes of the panel and appointing a deputy, who later resigned due to ‘personal circumstances’.

Alison Hernandez told a panel meeting on Friday that “dead bodies” had been found in woodland at Sticker in Cornwall.

She said that police were “trying to establish how many” bodies may be at the site, which is at the centre of a murder investigation. 

She later apologised after leading investigators said the woodland search only involved the human remains of a single person, not several. 

Detective Superintendent Jon Bancroft said: “We currently have three separate murder investigations being conducted in the Cornwall area.

“I have oversight of all of these investigations at this time, and can confirm they are being carried out independently of each other and are not believed to be linked.

“I can categorically state that we have recovered remains believed to be those of Daniel Coleman only from an area of woodland in Sticker. No other remains have been located at this scene to date.”

Cllr Haydon, who is also Plymouth City Council’s cabinet member for community safety, said: “It’s extremely disappointing that the commissioner shared such seriously flawed information at the panel.

“It’s a serious mistake which not only created a period of real worry for people but is deeply unhelpful when we need to do all we can to help restore confidence in our police force.

“It’s extremely worrying that Ms Hernandez made such a serious public statement without the full facts on what was clearly an operational matter, particularly when she has repeatedly told the committee that she does not get operational.”

At the meeting Ms Hernandez also failed to answer questions regarding a ‘golden handshake’ deal struck with chief constable Will Kerr – who she picked for the role – before his recently-announced retirement. She told panel members they could find the information in the statement of accounts published next year.

It follows an unsettled two-year-period within the Devon and Cornwall Police which saw its substantive chief constable suspended and later its acting chief constable.

It is the role of a police and crime commissioner to hold the chief constable to account for the police’s performance and be the public’s voice in policing.

Last year Ms Hernandez appointed a deputy commissioner Mark Kingscote, who later resigned after just five months in post, despite being recommended not to by the panel because they felt he didn’t have enough experience.

Cllr Hayden continued: “All of this, coupled with the apparent chaos at senior levels of the force and the interventions required following inspection and the continued need to improve means there are very serious concerns over whether she is capable of continuing in this role and I believe she should be considering her position.”

During the panel meeting Councillor Julian German, who represents the Roseland on Cornwall Council, quizzed Ms Hernandez about how the investigation was progressing. He said: “Since your written update, the force has requested mutual aid and it’s been granted. Before mutual aid was granted the whole of the front line of the force was reorganised to cope with the pressure it is experiencing primarily due to incidents in Cornwall.

“So would you like to update the panel on that, why the mutual aid was requested and granted and what’s the ongoing situation?”

Ms Hernandez replied: “Some of the elements of that operation I can’t speak about but some of the things are very obvious. As you know there is a large crime scene that has been identified in Cornwall that is requiring a lot of effort to even scene guard the area.

“The level of expertise, some of the mutual aid we’ve brought in, is expertise in specific types of investigations that we didn’t have. The National Crime Agency is supporting the organisation at the moment.

She said: “I know there’s been some information in the media. We’ve got a huge forensic tent down there. Lots of forensics officers, obviously we’ve found dead bodies in that wood. We’re just trying to establish how many there may be at this point in time and whether we are aware of who they are or what might have happened to them.”

She later apologised saying: “The police have operational primacy over these matters. Any investigation will unfold rapidly and I was not in possession of all the facts at that time.”

The largest town in Devon still doesn’t have a public enquiry office despite Alison Hernandez pledging two years ago that public access was “non negotiable”.

Here is what Alison Hernandez said in August 2023 about the project to sell off part of the old station and redevelop the remainder with costs estimated at £5 million, now increased to £6 million.

“This project makes sense from every angle. Exmouth is Devon’s largest town and sees a huge increase in its population in the summer months. The teams based there, and the community they serve, deserve a station which is fit for the 21st Century, less harmful to the environment and cheaper to run.

“As with other police station building projects, I am insisting that a significant proportion of the public monies that we are investing in this project go to local people so that money benefits the local economy. The release of brownfield development land means additional housing can be provided in the town without greenfield sites being developed.”

She said improving public access to the force was a ‘non negotiable’ part of the project, adding: “When I carried out a public survey to determine which of the 58 possible locations the public would most like to see, a police enquiry office opened once again in Exmouth came eighth. People love the idea that they can walk into a station and talk to a real human being to report crime, receive advice on crime prevention and seek help for victims, so there is no way I am going to miss the opportunity to give this town back its front desk.”

Fast forward to the present.

Exmouth police station rebuild “too expensive”

Alison Stephenson, Local Democracy Reporter www.devonairradio.com 

A new police station in Exmouth is off the cards as estimated costs have risen to £6 million.

Police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez told a police and crime panel on Friday that she would prefer to find “another place” to put the police.

She said: “I’m not happy as it only cost £2 million to build the new Liskeard station and what we would be building in Exmouth is smaller. The costs have gone up dramatically.”

Exmouth and Exeter City police stations were both set to get public enquiry offices (PEOs) this year after Ms Hernandez made it her mission to reopen many across Devon and Cornwall which were closed to cut costs more than ten years ago.

But the panel heard that neither would be happening “at this point”.

Exmouth is dependent on new premises and concern over the public bringing weapons into the city centre building the police share with Exeter City Council has put the brakes on that one.

The commissioner said the city council had refused permission and she understood the challenges of not wanting council staff to be “at risk”. But she added to open an enquiry office somewhere else would mean moving all the policing staff so it wasn’t happening.

More than 90,000 residents accessed PEOs during 2024-25, “a clear sign of the value placed on face-to-face policing”, said the commissioner in her update to panel members.

She has reopened or opened 17 PEOs, bringing the total to 26 with Ivybridge, Liskeard and Tavistock the latest stations to open their doors to the public again.

The ageing police station complex in North Street, Exmouth, includes a disused magistrates court and a mothballed civil defence shelter. Plans were in the pipeline to sell off part of the site for redevelopment and a two-storey police station building built on the rest.

Exmouth is the largest town in Devon and the police station building is occupied by around 60 officers, but the public cannot enter without an appointment.

Answering a question about whether the recently opened police enquiry offices had resulted in a drop off in 101 calls as people could now walk into a police station and report crime, the commissioner said “no” and that 101 was “unrelenting”.

“The more channels you open the more people come,” she said. “Access is increasing for more people to report crime. That is positive because it allows us to understand what is happening in our communities. It is really making a difference to people coming forward and needing a face to face contact rather than one over the phone.”

A performance report to the panel showed that 12.3 per cent of calls to 101 were abandoned in the 12 months to May 2025 due to long waits compared with 37.4 last year. Latest data shows that 88 per cent of 101 calls are answered within ten minutes – the commissioner wants to get to 90 per cent.

The report shows that the public’s opinion of the 101 service has improved, with correspondence down from 42 to 4 in the last financial year and the only person to give feedback during 2025/26 so far was focused on praising the assistance they received.