by political editor Paul Francis

The race to become Kent's first elected police chief has taken an unexpected twist with the announcement the chairman of the police authority is to stand as an independent.

Ann Barnes said she was joining the race for the £85,000-a-year role beause she wanted to halt the politicisation of the Kent force, which she said would lead to the "nightmare scenario" of private firms patrolling the streets.

She is the fifth independent candidate to declare their hand and her decision comes as a surprise.

She has previously been cool about the idea of a directly-elected commissioner, declaring elections would be a wilful waste of money.

But announcing her candidacy, she took a sideswipe at the main political parties fielding candidates, claiming they could not be trusted to put Kent first but would be answerable to their political masters.

At a campaign launch outside Maidstone's County Hall she said: "The election for Police Commissioner is a crisis point for our Kent Police.

"We face the very real threat that for the first time our police service could fall under the control of a party politician.

"This will open the door to widespread privatisation of even the most central part of the force.

"We could so easily see private firms like G4S patrolling our streets. We will have someone in charge who will have political masters in Westminster.

"Could such a person be trusted to put the people of Kent first and not just toe the party line? This is a nightmare scenario."

She added: "I am the only independent candidate with a credible chance of beating the major parties and keeping party politics out of our police and stopping the swing to G4S style privatisation. I'm calling on all the people of Kent to get behind me and save the soul of our force."

Mrs Barnes, who lives in Folkestone, was recently re-appointed as chairman of Kent Police Authority until November, when it will be scrapped and the elections for a new generation of police commissioners take place.

She was born in Lancaster, but moved to Kent 30 years ago. She was a teacher for 27 years and has been a magistrate since 1986.

The contest for the role has seen an increasing number of would-be commissioners entering the Kent election.

The full list to date is: Craig Mackinlay (Con); Harriet Yeo (Lab); Ian Driver (Ind); Fran Croucher (Ind); Fergus Wilson (Ind); Dai Liyanage (Ind).