Police have called on people living on a Colchester estate to come forward and tell them about problems in the area.

The new two-pronged policing system, splitting the community and incident response sides of the job, has been in place for two months in Colchester.

In Greenstead, the community policing team is already making progress, but officers are calling for more people to come forward and share information about troublespots and ongoing concerns.

Sgt Adrian Dearsley, who is heading the urban community policing unit, said: "Things seem to be going very well for us. We know about some troublespots in the estate, such as Hunwicke Road and Greenstead shopping centre. But we need people to come forward and tell us about their problems."

He said the team were actively listening to people's general community policing concerns and thoughts, and had already made a lot of visits to traders, residents and community groups.

The new measures were introduced because Colchester police felt it was failing to maintain solid links with the communities they served.

Published Monday January 14, 2002