Firstly I am pleased to be able to reveal that Inspector Angie Austin will be my replacement when I retire at the end of March. Angie is currently leading a response team at Reigate that also covers Tandridge. Angie is no stranger to the area having previously been a Neighbourhood Sergeant here. I know she is very much looking forward to returning here as the Neighbourhood Inspector and meeting you all. She will join us at the beginning of March for a handover.

There have also been some changes to your local policing team and I am pleased to welcome PCSO Hemonie (known as Henri) Pilbrow who has replaced PCSO Nick White (Warlingham East). Nick has joined Surrey Police as a Constable. Good luck Nick in your new career! Henri is an experienced PCSO, joining from Leatherhead SNT. As a local person she is looking forward to combining her experience and local knowledge here in Tandridge.

Two additional members to the team are Roads Policing Community Support Officers Kerrie Anne Skeet and Stuart Wren. They have joined us from the Roads Policing Unit and their primary task will be to work alongside your Neighbourhood officers providing support, particularly around vehicle related antisocial behaviour and road related priority issues. They will undertake daily patrols and tasks providing valuable specialist support. They will focus on road related neighbourhood priority issues, intelligence gathering, community engagement and long term collaborative problem solving.

Following on from last month, in this column I reach the middle decade of my career, the 90s - the decade of computerisation. For the first five years I was a child protection officer investigating reports of abuse against children. This was another extremely rewarding period of my career working with partner agencies and young people and their families.

In 1995 I became Vulnerable Persons co-ordinator for the Force where I had responsibility for force-wide training and policies relating to child protection, domestic violence, domestic abuse and vulnerable adults. During this time I also visited Slovenia five times where I ran training couses for judges, social workers, police and charities for vulnerable persons. What an experience and opportunity!

Next month my last column will be my final decade including my promotions and my move here to Tandridge.