A NEW commander has been appointed for the Chiltern Vale police area to replace Superintendent Charles Nelson who stood down after just two weeks in the job.

The new area commander will be John Donlon, who is currently a detective superintendent with the force's Major Crime Unit, and will take over from temporary commander Superintendent Katherine Govier in early July.

Supt Govier has been in the post for three months.

Det Supt Donlon, who is married, has spent two years with the crime unit, based at Maidenhead, and earlier spent two years as head of the force training unit.

He was also chief inspector at High Wycombe, dealing with both CID and uniform issues, spent time in High Wycombe in the role of Detective Inspector and during his career has served in Slough, Reading, Maidenhead and Windsor in a mixture of uniform and CID roles.

Supt Nelson stepped down in March after allegations from members of his staff about his 'actions'.

At the time, a senior officer said there was a 'catalogue' of disciplinary allegations against Supt Nelson and the decision for him to stand aside had been made by the force although force officials said this would not pre-empt the outcome of the inquiry.

The inquiry into allegations against Supt Nelson is expected to take another two months.

The post of commander was previously held by Superintendent Rob Beckley.