16538/2NEW police inspector for Melksham and Bradford on Avon, Gary Porter has said he plans to be actively involved with both communities.

Insp Porter, 38, said his first priority was to assess the needs of the two towns.

He has been out on foot patrol and believes building up a relationship with residents is the key to success.

He said: "For me, the key thing is working in partnership with people.

"It's very easy to become driven by meetings and sit in the office doing paperwork all day long but that's not something I intend to do."

He praised the work of his officers and two police community safety officers and thinks they have a vital role.

"The community beat officers are the key to providing a good service, coupled with police community safety officers," he said.

He also thinks Community Safety meetings and Pubwatch schemes are both key forums and said the ideal situation would be for a network of Pubwatch schemes to be set up, communicating between each town about problem customers.

As well as being a valuable tool to address antisocial behaviour, he believes licensees

can also show they are working to meet the objectives of the Licensing Act, which came into force this week, by joining up.

Insp Porter was previously inspector of the operational planning unit in Melksham and before that was head of the armed response group at the police headquarters in Devizes for two years.

He joined the police force 19 years ago and spent three years in Marlborough before joining the traffic police. He was then Acting Inspector in Swindon.

He said: "All my experience stands me in good stead for what I'm doing now.

"I wanted this opportunity because running a sector is not something I have had the opportunity to do so far.

"It will be a challenging role but also very rewarding."