Incredible journey of Shropshire's crime chief Bill Longmore

From unsung hero and Olympic torch bearer to one of Britain's first ever Police and Crime Commissioners – Bill Longmore is on an incredible journey.

While most 75-year-olds are thinking of slowing down, retired police superintendent Mr Longmore is busy rolling up his sleeves and throwing himself into yet another new challenge.

And they don't come any bigger than West Mercia's PCC, a job he feels he was destined to do and one that comes with no handbook.

"I said to my wife Ursula, 'I feel that there is something that I haven't yet done in my life'," said Mr Longmore, of Hanwood, near Shrewsbury.

"She said if you feel that that is what you have got to do then fair enough, I will back you.

"So I said okay then I will go for it. I felt it was always my destiny to do something like that. I definitely felt that."

For Mr Longmore, blazing a trail as the region's new PCC is another string to a very large bow.

It hasn't all been plain sailing – there has been a vote of no confidence from a councillors to contend with together with criticism of a wage bill for his staff that runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds. And all this following elections that barely registered with voters, who showed their disinterest by staying away from the polling booths.

But Mr Longmore says he has a thick skin and sees his new role as a continuation of a life of public service.

Over the last half a century, he has been a police officer rising to the rank of superintendent, businessman, parish councillor and community stalwart.

And throughout all of those he has managed to pioneer sport in the community as a way of getting youngsters off the streets and bringing people together.

The foundations were laid when Mr Longmore, who loves sport, was a youngster growing up in Amblecote.

He set himself the task of organising street games for the children before later founding a football team – Amblecote Rovers – because he and his friends desperately wanted to play football.

And it didn't stop when he joined the police cadets at 17 after spotting an advert in the paper.

Mr Longmore made his first outing as a fresh faced police constable for Staffordshire Police when The Queen visited Brierley Hill in 1957 and within nine years, he had been promoted to inspector.

It was as an inspector in Cannock, that he organised a series of major five-a-side tournaments to keep bored youths off the streets and away from crime.

Money was also raised to build two BMX tracks and an indoor track. It was a huge success, so much so it was rolled out across the whole of Staffordshire.

After 30 years with the police force, Mr Longmore retired – but only to take up a new challenge – this time as a businessman.

For the following decade Mr Longmore bought two factories, which he turned into timber mills, before he decided to sell up. He married wife Ursula in 1989 and the couple continued to live in Cannock where Mr Longmore became a district councillor.

The couple then bought an old farmhouse in Hanwood and they soon immersed themselves in village life, trying to make the village a better place for its residents.

They helped the village's annual flower show, staged on their land, bloom and they soon became parish councillors.

But it was Mr Longmore's efforts in bringing sport to all ages in Hanwood that has paid dividends.

He developed a junior bowls club, football for both women and men and even created a rounders team.

He also secured more than £50,000 in funding to regenerate village grounds, creating a "Waterside Park" for the whole community, at the same time earning himself the title of BBC Midlands Unsung Hero in 2011.

And it was this accolade that in turn earned him the honour of carrying the 2012 Olympic flame through part of Shrewsbury, an overwhelming moment for Mr Longmore. But Mr Longmore, a quiet man, remains modest about his achievements, only saying he just wants to be helpful.

He said: "I am always interested in people. It is always difficult to not to take up a challenge. I always try to be helpful and help people out."

It came as no surprise to his friends and family when Mr Longmore eventually decided he would stand for the new police job – although he says he really had no intention of throwing his hat into the ring.

He said: "I saw it advertised and to be quite honest I didn't have any thoughts about it at all."

But his fears that it was going to go down the political road caused him to have a change of heart. "I don't think police and politics mix," he says.

Mr Longmore said he was quietly confident about winning the PCC election, despite a low turnout. And when he won he even gave away £20,000 of his own salary to help victims of crime. He says it was only when he took up office that he realised just how powerful the job of PCC is.

"When I had to sign to take over the police estate, you suddenly see how powerful the job is. You are the holder of the keys.

"That is a situation which I could never really have imagined."

He appointed another former policeman, Barrie Sheldon from Telford, as his deputy, and for the last six months the pair have had the difficult task of shaping the delivery of policing across the whole of West Mercia, a vast geographical area.

"We are both in agreement that policing will never be the same as what we saw it, with officers in stations in villages. Those days are gone.

"We have got to come up with policing for a different generation and it has got to be policing that is very money-conscious.

"We have only got three years left, that soon passes.

"It is going to be nice to see the success – hopefully."