Essex Police will be holding weekly 'street meets' and community meetings to encourage residents to communicate with officers.

From Wednesday, PCSOs will hold a weekly street meet on their patch, including supermarkets, libraries, shopping centres and other public venues.

Every district will hold a number of local community meetings every eight weeks, chaired by a sergeant or higher ranking officer.

Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh said: “Consistent and effective contact between communities and their local policing team is crucial.

"Although there are a number of good local police and community meetings there are many that are poorly attended and not as effective as they could be. Therefore, I have decided to refresh our approach."

“Local community meetings mean residents and businesses can work with their local policing team to address matters of concern. I encourage people to come and talk to us. Let us know about the issues that are important to you.”

The new meeting structure will replace routine police attendance at Neighbourhood Action Panels.

Communities are encouraged to continue to hold NAPs but to bring any issues of concern to the attention of the relevant local community meeting.

Meetings will be advertised in advance in the My Neighbourhood section of the Essex Police website andon its social media channels.