TACKLING anti-social behaviour, metal thieves and drugs are among the priorities for Pinehurst’s new police community beat manager.

PC Peter Foster, previously a response officer at Gablecross police station, hopes to work alongside residents and organisations to tackle crime around the estate.

He replaces PC Angela Restorick, who left Pinehurst after two years to become an investigator for the local crime team.

PC Foster said: “I was looking for something new and I was approached and asked whether I wanted to do the job. And it’s certainly a good challenge.

“It’s a completely different way of policing. As a response officer, you go around ‘firefighting’, whereas when you come to be a community beat manager you have to look below the surface and look at the long-term issues, whether it be anti-social behaviour, drugs, or metal thefts.

“I have been out as much as I can in the community and going to as many meetings as possible to get my face known.”

PC Foster had been a 999 response officer since he started at Wiltshire Police four and a half years ago. In his new role, he is supported by PCSOs Chris Day and Kuy Harrison.

They will focus on enforcing the dispersal order on the Tree Courts estate, as well as tackling the possession of cannabis, and those who store or circulate stolen metal in Pinehurst.

PC Restorick is now part of the team at Gablecross police station which investigates crimes with a named suspect, unless it relates directly to a community issue.

She said: “I’m quite excited about it because I do want to eventually go into the more investigative side of policing, so it’s a welcome change.

“Pinehurst has given me a lot of experience in a certain way of policing. I just think you don’t realise how much information you can learn about an area by doing community policing.

“I certainly know when I first came to the area, there had been a big operation to crack down on anti-social behaviour in a particular part of Pinehurst and that had made people a lot more positive in terms of approaching the police, engaging with the police and getting to know what the NPTs do.

“Unfortunately, we saw that anti-social behaviour problem resurface, but because of all the information we had, because the public were so quick to report things to us this time around, we were able to get the dispersal order put in place and various other measures a lot more quickly.”

Pinehurst NPT is holding a community surgery at Pinehurst Library, on The Circle, on Monday at 4.30pm.

To contact the team, call 0845 408 7000 or email peter.foster@wiltshire.pnn.police.uk.