SWANAGE has its police front desk back after residents called for it to reopen.

The desk, which is situated in the town hall, has been made more accessible in a bid to ‘better serve the local area'.

Swanage joins Blandford and Lyme Regis in the towns having desks reopened as part of a trial.

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner David Sidwick said: “I’m delighted to see Swanage join the ranks – I listened to what the people of Swanage wanted, they wanted the front-desk open again, they wanted the police to have a footprint in the town and that’s what the front-desk in the town hall gives them.”

Mr Sidwick added: “It is a priority of my Police and Crime Plan to make policing more ‘visible and connected’ to the people and communities it serves, and this contact option will give back to the public the opportunity to go and speak face-to-face with the police.”

Superintendent Pete Browning, contact management commander, said: “Continuing to improve the visibility and accessibility of Dorset Police is a priority for the force.

“We appreciate that people prefer to engage with the police online, over the phone and face-to-face, so it is vital that we provide a variety of accessible options to our communities.

“To date, we’ve also reopened Lyme Regis and Blandford on a trial basis and reopening Swanage Police Station to the public will provide the local community with another contact option, which will improve the convenience of contacting the police and strengthen the service we offer.”

As well as offering more accessibility to police stations, Dorset Police is bringing local police into communities at Community Contact Points.

This is a way for members of the pubic to meet their local officers, report crime and incidents, or discuss issues that are important to them with a police officer, face-to-face.

These Community Contact Points are drop-in events scheduled across the whole of the county.

To date, Dorset Police has delivered 27 Community Contact Points across the force area, in Verwood, Ferndown, Swanage, north Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

A full list of Dorset Police stations open to the public can be found at dorset.police.uk/contact/find-a-police-station