THE new chief of Dursley area police has promised to get tough on crime.

Local police welcomed the arrival of their new Inspector this week, Steve Templeton, 36, who takes over from Paul Donavon after he moved to a new role in Cirencester following three years in the post.

He will be based at Dursley Police Station in a neighbourhood area also covering Berkeley, Cam and Wotton-under-edge.

He told the Gazette: "There has been a slight increase in crime over the last year and I intend to address this as soon as possible.

"We want to tackle issues that affect local people like anti-social behaviour and criminal damage and will be using all our sources of intelligence to do this."

Insp Templeton, from Cheltenham, who is married with two children has been with Gloucestershire Constabulary for 13 years and previously worked in Cirencester and Cheltenham.

He says the force will continue to launch high visibility weekend patrols like Operation Lendrick earlier this month, which saw 60 drivers stopped at various check points and action taken against people committing criminal acts.

It is also set to increase the number of community support officers throughout the area and clampdown on night crime.

Insp Templeton said: "We take incidents that happen at night very seriously and have extra officers working on Fridays and Saturdays to prevent them from taking place. They will certainly be continuing."

He is urging members of the public to play their role and inform police about criminal activity in the area.

He added: "Earlier this week there were a couple of burglaries in Stone and a member of the public informed us straight away and give us information we needed. "Because of their help, we were able to catch the offenders. It shows what can happen when the people call in - we can tackle crime quickly and effectively.

"Inspector Donovan did a great job in the three years he was here and I have inherited a good team from him. We look forward to carrying on his success."

Members of the public will have the chance to meet Insp Templeton at the Police Community Consultative Meeting on November 22 at Dursley Library.