KENT'S Chief Constable Mike Fuller will be travelling across the county today to see for himself the progress being made in delivering neighbourhood policing.

His tour takes places as national Neighbourhood Policing Fortnight draws to a close.

Mr Fuller is particularly keen to see how local policing teams are making a real difference to the quality of people’s lives in neighbourhoods across Kent and Medway.

He will started his tour when he met 80 trainee police community support officers (PCSOs) at the Officer Safety Training Centre at Kent Police College in Maidstone. A total of 120 new recruits are currently undergoing PCSO training.

He formally welcomed the trainees and talked about the importance of their role in the wider neighbourhood policing team.

He then headed to Dartford to look at how neighbourhood teams work in partnership with other organisations to deal with local problems. He was at Dartford Civic Centre, in Home Gardens, to open the Public Safety Unit meeting, involving Kent Police, Dartford Borough Council, Kent Fire and Rescue Service and Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust.

He then meet three of the North Kent policing area’s new PCSOs, Kirsty Demirtas, Kim Anderson and John Lynch, before they caught a bus to their neighbourhoods.

Thanks to an arrangement with Arriva the PCSOs went by bus around their neighbourhoods, providing a visible uniformed presence on the buses, dealing with anti-social behaviour and meeting and talking to members of the public.

This afternoon it was back to school for the Chief Constable who is visiting Sittingbourne Community College, in Swanstree Avenue, Sittingbourne. The college part-funds Mid Kent PCSO Miriam Gardener and also hosted a recent Partners and Communities Together (PACT) meeting.

These involve people from the local community and a wide range of local organisations, who work together to identify neighbourhood issues and the action that can be taken to address them. The results are then fed back to the community at later PACT meetings.

Students at the school, their parents and staff and people living in the Murston area were among the 40 people who attended a PACT meeting at the school on April 26 when it was agreed the priorities for the area were dealing with anti-social behaviour, action on speeding motorists and provision of more activities for young people.

Local people also had concerns about parking, lighting and nuisance vehicles.

At the school the Chief Constable met head teacher Alan Barham, PCSO Gardener and students.

Later he saw another method of involving local people in identifying and tackling local issues, as he called at Ashford police station to join a South Kent policing area Street Briefing in Hillbrow Lane, Ashford, on the grass area near the junction with Baileys Field.

The briefing will involve the neighbourhood policing team and representatives from local partner organisations meeting residents in the street to discuss their concerns and explain the action being taken to address them.

The on-street briefings are more likely to include people who may not want or be able to go to more formal meetings.

They also help local people to get to know their neighbourhood officers and each other.

Finally Mr Fuller will go to West Kent, at 4pm, to meet local PCSO Pete Hylands at Swanley, then join him on foot patrol on his rural beat covering South Darenth and Horton Kirby, returning to Swanley police station at 5pm.

Mr Fuller said: "I very much look forward to hearing from the public, our officers and staff and partner organisations about the difference neighbourhood policing is making to the quality of life of communities across Kent and Medway.

"I know from the many letters of appreciation I receive that people are already seeing changes where they live, as police teams and local organisations get to grips with many of the problems that affect local people in their daily lives.

"Neighbourhood policing focuses on the things that matter most to local communities, which is why we are so committed to ensuring every neighbourhood has a named officer or team by 2008."

People can find out how to contact their local neighbourhood team by using the postcode search facility on the Kent Police website, www.kent.police.uk