Community groups set up to scrutinise local policing are being axed by Staffordshire's new crime czar – but he has said that public involvement will continue.

Safer Neighbourhood Panels, set up during the tenure of Staffordshire's former Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis, will cease on October 1. They were set up in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent in 2014 to enable members of the public to get involved in scrutinising their local neighbourhood police.

Mr Ellis' successor Ben Adams, who was elected as the new PFCC in May, took the "difficult decision" to end the Safer Neighbourhood Panels. But he told members of Staffordshire's Police, Fire and Crime Panel that new plans were being developed to continue public scrutiny of the force's activity.

He said: "I made the decision after four or five months of looking very carefully at the Safer Neighbourhood Panels to ask them to step down from the communication they have with the Neighbourhood Police Commanders. I have thought really hard about this because I don't want to lose the expertise and enthusiasm of those individuals.

"I wasn't particularly comfortable with the concept of any group holding the police commanders to account. That isn't, as I see it, the legislation I operate under where I can hold the Chief Constable to account.

"I am aware I have upset one or two people around this who, for all the right reasons, were passionate about their SNP and they feel they are not going to be able to deliver in the same way as they were before. I hope they realise how much I value what they have done because they have done a fantastic job.

"In the last few years an awful lot of individuals there have contributed a great deal of their time bringing local issues, challenging some local decisions and making suggestions to local commanders. It has been of value.

"What I want to do is widen that. I want an even bigger voice about local concerns going into our local command structure. The current model made it difficult to for them influence response, roads policing and quite a few centralised functions, so the SNP's reach was being somewhat limited."

Stafford Borough and county councillor Ann Edgeller asked: "How do you intend to work more closely with the general public?

"We did have in Stafford Borough quite a lot of Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators that used to meet every six or 12 months in a forum with the Chief Inspector and they used to bring all their problems into that forum. Sometimes there was a common denominator that we could deal with.

"I wonder if you would think about reinstating that so we can be more in touch with the general public so they're not forgotten and have more of a voice."

Mr Adams said: "The first thing we are going to do is retain the scrutiny – this is the commissioner asking independent people to scrutinise certain functions like stop and search and use of force. It's helped us to inform the police about where they can improve some process, it allows us to look to things such as disproportionality in terms of who we're stopping and why, and I want independent people involved in that.

"There will be a pool of all our current volunteers and others will be able to join in. I need that pool to be a bit more diverse than it is now and I think some people will be encouraged to get involved that perhaps wouldn't have wanted to be involved in a Safer Neighbourhood Panel.

"We want to greatly expand Community Speedwatch, give people an opportunity to get stuck into an issue in their community. I'm looking at independent advisory groups, forums, opportunities for people to comment on police policy and police ethics.

"This is not us turning our back on independent volunteer input. If anything I want more of it and I want it to be in the direction of the public telling local commanders what concerns them."

Police, Fire and Crime Panel chairman Councillor Bernard Peters said: "I think recognition and reassurance that the community have a voice is a powerful message for us to hear and we look forward to seeing that over the next few months."