THE self-anointed leader of the unelected Hampshire Senate has admitted he made misleading claims it has reduced crime.

Six independent members of Hampshire Police Authority challenged Tory councillor Ken Thornber to spell out what the new body had done.

They insisted there had been no “detectable input” from the Senate in ongoing work to cut crime and disorder.

One of the members, Ray Palmer, said he was “horrified” when he read Cllr Thornber’s claims in the Daily Echo that: “Thanks to partnership working made possible through the Senate, the body has already achieved considerable success against its key targets of cutting alcohol-related crime [and] reducing antisocial behaviour.”

Mr Palmer said he was concerned Cllr Thornber was taking credit for the Senate and “overlooking and ignoring” people across Hampshire who are working in partnership to cut crime. He said: “His claims about what the Senate had achieved were very dubious.

“He said unequivocally that partnership work was made possible by the Senate, so in the spirit of openness and the democratic accountability which he proclaims, telling the public ought not to be a problem.”

Cllr Thornber, pictured, said the Senate had replaced the Local Area Agreement (LAA) board which agrees local priorities with central government, of which crime reduction was a “key theme”.

He admitted: “To be strictly accurate, the improvements have been delivered through an LAA board but have continued under the heading of the Senate and upon which the chief constable now sits. The Senate fully recognises the role that the former LAA board played in the reduction of crime and disorder and it was the pre-eminence of that board and its lack of democratic accountability which led to the formation of the Senate.”

The chairman of the Hampshire Police Authority, Labour councillor Jacqui Rayment, backed her colleagues, saying: “The claims that [Ken Thornber] made did not do justice to all the partnership work that has been going on and the Police Authority, through the police force, has driven crime down.”

The Senate, launched last year to improve co-operation between key organisations, is comprised of council leaders and representatives from the police, fire service, Army, health service, voluntary and business sectors.