A reshuffle of the local neighbourhood policing team has seen the introduction of a couple of new faces and PC Mat Cummins take over the town centre patch which he has been overseeing since the death of his friend, Andy Hocking, in March.

Falmouth and Helston’s new sector inspector, Ian Thompson, had promised to honour the legacy left by Andy and is confident that the local community will welcome PC Cummins into his new role.

“Andy was Andy,” he said. “He had his own unique way of dealing with the community in the town centre. Mat is unique as well, but just does things differently. He is looking to take parts of what Andy did very, very well and build on them.

“This includes the close relationships with the town council, town manager, shop keepers and Pubwatch. The strong links are there, Mat just needs to pick them up.”

PC Cummins has officially become the neighbourhood beat manager (NBM) for Arwenack and Boslowick although his main focus will be Arwenack unless there are “significant issues that require him to pay more attention to Boslowick,” said Insp Thompson.

“I am quite conscious that Arwenack, with Mat covering two wards, might be spread a little bit thinner so to compensate for that there are now two PCSOs, Bill Wood and Sam Crowther.”

While Bill will continue to work within the Arwenack patch, newcomer Sam will focus on Boslowick.

The other newcomer to the neighbourhood team is PC Helen Newton, who will be joining from the response team at Falmouth police station next week. She will take over as NBM for Penwerris and Trescobeas while PC Bob Jones remains NBM for the Penryn and the rural locations including Flushing and Mylor.

Making up the team are PCSOs Ashley Fuller, who will take over the rural parishes; Chris Braddon, taking on Penryn and Becky Bromley, who will retain Penwerris but also take on Trescobeas as Ellie Grey has been seconded to work with Cornwall Council’s anti-social behaviour team.

PCSO John Dukes retains responsibility for the two university campuses at Tremough and Woodlane and Andy Huddlestone continues to work in the villages of Mabe, Ponsanooth and Stithians. It is hoped another PCSO will be in place by the winter.

The new team emerged following a meeting on Friday when there was a “bit of a team shuffle.” Insp Thompson said: “I saw an opportunity to move a few people around and do things a little bit differently, but the meeting was also an opportunity to set a clear message about what is expected from the team.

“It is about being visible and accessible. There are key times of the day when I expect PCSOs and beat managers to be accessible – school arriving and leaving times – whereas there is little point walking around a housing estate at midday.

“I would love to put a police officer on every corner, but that is not going to happen. Our priorities are where the public or community tell us there is a problem or where we have identified hot-spots. It is about managing people’s expectations.”