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Work done by police leading a multi-agency initiative to cure ongoing anti-social behaviour at Haverhill's skate park in Howe Road has resulted in a county award.

Haverhill police's Safer Neighbourhood Team put forward the campaign they put together to end a long period of problems to residents in the area as their entry for Suffolk Police's Citizen Focus Taking Pride Awards.

All 30 SNTs in Suffolk took part, and were whittled down to six finalists who made the trip to Suffolk force headquarters at Martlesham last week to make a presentation and secure as many votes as they could from the over 100 attendees.

Haverhill came out runners-up, being pipped by three votes by Sudbury.

SNT leader Sgt Sarah Bartley said they were particularly grateful to one of the Howe Road residents, Eileen Bocock, who went along with them to take part in their presentation.

Residents in the Howe Road area had suffered from months of trouble and disturbance from youths gathering at the skate park and drinking.

Police worked with residents and various agencies to implement a dispersal order, and whereas they had 62 calls of complaint over a six month period last year, Sgt Bartley said they had had none at all this year.

Mrs Bocock, who has set up a Neighbourhood Watch group in Howe Road as a result of the initiative, was able to speak about the improvement that had been achieved for residents.

The CB9 media hub based at Haverhill Arts Centre, made a video of the skate park now, being used for its intended purpose, to show as part of the presentation.

Haverhill SNT were presented with a framed certificate and Sgt Bartley said they were very pleased with the outcome as a lot of hard work had gone into the initiative.

* Our picture shows Sgt Bartley with the SNT's award, flanked by two of her team, PC Rupert Beynon and PC Will Wright.