Surrey's outspoken new police commissioner wrote his own headline this week when he called out to the press: "The headline is ‘police and crime commissioner is not giving up’."

At a meeting on Tuesday night with Mole Valley councillors Kevin Hurley said he was determined to pursue his ‘people’s priorities’ including zero tolerance despite diminishing funding and an inevitable big drop in police numbers.

The press were initially told they and the public were barred from the meeting.

When the Epsom Guardian queried this the council and Mr Hurley's office both claimed the other had asked for the meeting to be held in private.

But just hours before the briefing started a council spokeswoman said there had been a ‘miscommunication’ and the press and public could attend after all.

Speaking after the meeting Mr Hurley said: "The intent is to try and make this better against an ever-decreasing purse and not give up.

"This is about not giving up and doing stuff we know that works. We know if we take money off criminals they don’t like it, the public do like it, but it also means we can spend it on visible street policing."

Mr Hurley told councillors about his plans and the tough financial times ahead for Surrey Police, which he predicts must save between £25m and £30m over three years.

He said cuts would inevitably fall on the workforce because they had already sold-off police buildings and there were limits to other possible savings.

Mr Hurley said: "Unless you want to be faced by the scene of starving police dogs barking for more Winalot running around the county, we are going to have to look elsewhere for our cuts."

He added: "We hope to achieve that by natural wastage but the reality is we are going to lose a lot of people."

He said they were also collaborating with other forces in areas such as murder squads and armed response teams.

He said: "What that means is we need less office space therefore there’s less on-cost for that and additionally we need less hierarchy and less of the entourage that falls behind senior managers and senior police people."

Explaining zero tolerance, he said telling a policeman to ‘eff off’ and repeatedly refusing an order to pick up a McDonald’s wrapper or provide a name and address could end in arrest.

He said: "What it means is you do not ignore bad stuff going on. It doesn’t mean locking everybody up in prison, it doesn’t mean flogging them and it doesn’t mean hanging them.

"We couldn’t do that even if we wanted to because we are in the EU and it’s not allowed: That’s a small joke."

Mr Hurley, who drew up Iraq’s policing strategy during his 30 years in the police and worked as a media pundit for two years, introduced himself and his deputy Jeff Harris by drawing similarities with a TV duo.

He said: "I would invite you to think that perhaps I look a bit like Baldrick and this is Blackadder next to me.

"You’ll pick up on the similarities later on. We have in fact done a double act on that in the past."

After election Mr Hurley made six commitments, based on ‘people’s priorities,’ - zero tolerance, visible street policing, putting victims first, increasing the public’s say, protecting police and having uncompromising standards.

He said: "I think I can put my hand on my heart and say there is not a single person in the county who has actually dissented from the broad principle of all of these."

Mr Hurley said he had told judges including Lord Justice Leveson that they should make sure steps are taken to safeguard the social and mental welfare of victims cross-examined in court.

He said: "Thus we avoid such unfortunate situations as the death of Mrs Andrade earlier this year."

Violinist Frances Andrade, 48, from Guildford, is believed to have committed suicide during the trial of a couple who sexually abused her.

Mr Hurley also stressed his intention to stand up for police who are unable to comment when criticised. He said: "Police are damned if they do and damned if they don’t."

He referenced Monday’s BBC Panorama special on the Hillsborough disaster, which he said articulated an ‘apparently appalling cover-up’ by some of the senior leadership in South Yorkshire.

He said: "That will be damaging to public perceptions of policing generally. It’s hurtful to the police officers who work in this county who take a real pride in what had happened.

"But the key point to think about here is most of them weren’t even born when that went on. Someone needs to be setting the balance right on some of these issues.

"And in no way do I defend what went on in South Yorkshire with the senior leadership team."

In response to a question on his ‘own entourage’, Mr Hurley said he was paid £70,000, Mr Harris received £55,000 while two assistants for victims and equality and diversity were each paid £12,500.

He said his office had saved £250,000 compared to the amount spent by police authority which it replaced.

Mr Hurley, a reservist army officer with shares in a Chinese healthcare company, was also asked to address concern about his security business and whether it was a potential conflict of interest.

He said after leaving the police he decided to provide advice on policing in the Middle East and other security matters, but the business has not earned any income since he was elected as PCC.

He said: "It has effectively lain fallow. I might add much to my disappointment because I had hoped to be able to make a few quid extra on that because Surrey is an expensive county to live in and I have a lifestyle aspiration that is not necessarily met by funds I have at the moment."

He added: "I still have aspiration, should I get my life under control, to spend time on it whether it’s at the weekend, in the evening or odd day off."

While answering other questions he said he will not hire a youth commissioner and spoke of wanting to ‘unlock the passion’ of police officers, which can become stifled by bureaucracy and targets.

Watch the briefing online at www.molevalley.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/105102