A Police and Crime Commissioner appointment which sparked a fresh war of words between Barry Coppinger and Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has been confirmed in her new post.

Lisa Oldroyd began work on Monday as assistant chief executive in Mr Coppinger’s office and will have responsibility for setting out the priorities and outcomes in his Police and Crime Plan for Cleveland.

The £60,000-a-year role drew criticism from Mr Houchen before the recruitment process was over with the Tory mayor stating it was “more jobs for the boys” and a further expansion of bureaucracy and middle management in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

Mr Houchen was later accused by Labour’s Mr Coppinger of using sexist language and the latter fired back with an attack of his own pointing to figures showing a 150 per cent increase in staffing costs at the Tees Valley Combined Authority over the past four years.

Mrs Oldroyd has 18 years experience working in crime and community safety, including leading on the development, delivery and performance management of community safety policies in local Government for over 12 years.

She served most recently as programme lead for criminal justice across the Cleveland and Durham areas.

Simon Dennis, chief executive officer for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland, said: “As part of our full, open recruitment process, the assistant chief executive vacancy was advertised in several locations: on the OPCC website, on Cleveland Police’s career portal and on the worldwide LinkedIn professional social media platform.

“The latter gave us the opportunity for global reach to attract potential candidates without a significant spend on advertising.

“We had an excellent response to the vacancy, attracting several candidates from a range of backgrounds and disciplines.

“A number of candidates were shortlisted for interview, which were held remotely using video conferencing facilities.

“Ensuring an appropriate level of independent scrutiny, the interview panel were joined by a representative from one of Cleveland Police’s staff networks and a senior leader from another OPCC, sitting as an independent member.”

Mr Dennis added: “Lisa has a proven track record in working with partners to deliver services that make a difference to communities, including the development of the UK’s first heroin assisted treatment scheme in Middlesbrough and Divert, Cleveland’s custody diversion scheme.

“The PCC has a statutory duty to develop and deliver a local Police and Crime Plan.

“Lisa will lead on assisting the Commissioner with the creation of his latest plan, which is due to be presented to the Police and Crime Panel in July.

“As a team, we look forward to driving forward the commitments in the PCC’s plan and leading our joint programme with Cleveland Police delivering on our equality, diversity and inclusion agenda, which continues to be a priority for policing locally and across the world.”