THE police have praised a town s youngsters for their good behaviour during the school summer holidays. Pc Ross Patterson, the beat officer for Potton, says all areas of crime involving young people have significantly dropped compared with a year ago. Twe

THE police have praised a town's youngsters for their good behaviour during the school summer holidays.

Pc Ross Patterson, the beat officer for Potton, says all areas of crime involving young people have significantly dropped compared with a year ago.

Twelve months ago police were attempting to tackle problems such as rowdy youths in parts of Potton, under-age drinking, vandalism and theft from shops.

Now reports of crime involving young people have dropped dramatically and one senior officer believes good visible policing is responsible.

"Ross is a good, young officer who has worked hard on his patch and the results there reflect this," said Insp John Maries, head of Biggleswade police station whose division covers Potton.

"Visible policing is always important and being able to talk and be known by people in any community helps an officer in reducing crime."

Pc Patterson is keen to praise young people in Potton for making his job a lot easier this summer.

"In the past I have had to deal with many problems but this summer it has been very quiet which means the youngsters in Potton have been behaving themselves and I must congratulate them," he said.

"I have a good rapport with the youngsters and I think talking to them gains respect and crime among young people in the town has fallen significantly in the past few months and it has been a very quiet summer since they broke up from school.

"If youngsters are behaving themselves then it makes my job a lot easier as well as Potton a much safer and nicer place to live.

"Last year we had a problem of under-age drinking at the Mill Lane recreation ground but we have had no reports of alcohol being consumed by kids there this year.

"The kids have a good skate park and are keeping themselves occupied by not getting into trouble and any good behaviour from youngsters should be applauded when they normally attract completely the opposite publicity.