Alan Billings

The Reverend Canon Dr Alan Billings
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 November 2014
Preceded by	Shaun Wright
Deputy Leader of Sheffield City Council
In office 1981–1986
Leader	David Blunkett
Personal details
Born	1942 (age 73–74)
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Veronica Hardstaff
Education	Emmanuel College, Cambridge University of Bristol Lincoln Theological College

Alan Roy Billings (born 7 October 1942) is a British politician and retired Anglican priest. He was also the director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion at Lancaster University. He contributes regularly to the programme Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4. Active in local government, he was a member of the Home Office Community Cohesion Panel, served as a schools adjudicator, was Chair of the Cumbria Courts Board, and was a member of the Youth Justice Board.

Early life and education

Billings was born in 1942.^[1] He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. He subsequently trained to become a teacher while attending Bristol University.

Career

Billings first career was as a teacher in Leicester and Barnsley.

He then trained to become a priest and following ordination served at several churches including St Silas Leicester and St Marys in Sheffield. In 1969 he was a Curate at St. Magdalene Church Knighton Leicester. While in Sheffield he was Deputy Leader of Sheffield City Council and was a contemporary of David Blunkett. At this time in the late 1980s, Sheffield city council was engaged in infamous disputes with Margaret Thatcher. During this period he gained a doctorate by carrying out research that ultimately contributed to the controversial anti Thatcherite report Faith in the City. For a period, he was the Principal of the West Midlands Ministerial Training Course, a part-time course for ordinands of the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church, based at The Queen's College, Birmingham. Latterly he was the vicar of St George's Kendal in Cumbria, England.

Billings has written several books: Dying and Grieving, Secular Lives Sacred Hearts and God and Community Cohesion.

Police and Crime Commissioner

In 2014, Billings was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the South Yorkshire Police and crime commissioner by-election, to replace the former PCC and Rotherham councillor Shaun Wright. He was elected to the position with just over 50% of first preference votes in an election with a 14.8% turnout.^[2] In this capacity, he suspended the force's Chief Constable, David Crompton, in April 2016 in the wake of the Hillsborough inquest, citing an "erosion of trust".^[3]

Personal life

He married Veronica Hardstaff in 2007, a Labour councillor from Sheffield, and Labour MEP from 1994-99 for Lincolnshire and Humberside South. In 1966 he had married Daphne Thomas, having two sons, and divorcing in 1993. In 1994 he married Linda Woodhead, divorcing in 2002.

References

1. "Alan Roy Billings". Crockford's Clerical Directory (online ed.). Church House Publishing. Retrieved 22 January 2016. (subscription required)
2. Holehouse, Matthew (31 October 2014). "Labour wins South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election". The Daily Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group). Retrieved 31 October 2014.
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36156906

External links

• Youth Justice Board