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A policeman who served two years in Haverhill as the town's police chief, is now the senior officer for the whole of west Suffolk.

Newly-promoted Supt Andrew Mason has been appointed the position of Policing Commander for West Suffolk.

Based in Bury St Edmunds, Supt Mason will be responsible for policing the Forest Heath, St Edmundsbury, Mid Suffolk and Babergh districts.

Supt Mason takes over from Supt Terry Byford who has moved to the position of Superintendent Operations.

Supt Mason started his policing career when he joined Essex Police as a PC in 1995 and then transferred to Suffolk Police in 2004 as a sergeant, after serving in Essex for nine years.

In Ipswich he worked as a sergeant during Operation Sumac (the murder of five young women in Ipswich) and then moved to Sudbury where he worked as a response sergeant and subsequently within the Sudbury and Great Cornard Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT).

In 2009 he was promoted to inspector and became the inspector for Haverhill. In 2011 he moved to Ipswich as the Ipswich Central SNT inspector.

As part of his role on Ipswich Central SNT, Supt Mason saw the implementation of the Reducing The Strength Campaign, which continues to have a positive effect on the town. It involves retailers voluntarily agreeing to remove super strength alcohol from their stores.

Following the success of the campaign it has now been rolled out in Bury St Edmunds, Lowestoft, Sudbury and Haverhill. Coupled with this, the campaign has been adopted in other areas of the country.

Supt Mason said: "This is a massive new challenge for me. The west of the county is a large geographical area with diverse policing needs from vibrant town centres to far reaching rural communities.

"Suffolk is a really safe place to be but I also know people need to feel safe so I will ensure we have a highly visible police presence in our communities and that the service we deliver is of the highest quality.

"I really want the public to have confidence in Suffolk Constabulary to keep them safe and that if they do have an interaction with us in any way they are left feeling really satisfied that we have done a good job.

"As I live and work in west Suffolk I know what a fantastic place it is and I am determined my team will contribute fully to keeping that way.”