POLICE have given Petersfield town councillors a cast-iron assurance that the town's police station will not be closed. In answer to a direct question from town councillor Brian Dutton at a full meeting of the council on Monday night, Petersfield's leading policeman, Sgt Paul Bromell, told him: "The very easy answer as far as I am concerned is that it will be open forever." Mr Dutton has long been concerned about the perceived dwindling police presence in Petersfield and was a strong supporter of the Save The Petersfield Police Campaign. The pressure group was born in 2003 after furious reaction to an announcement that Petersfield and Whitehill police forces were to merge and Petersfield was to lose its police inspector. Despite a prominent campaign and the biggest public meeting seen in Petersfield's Festival Hall for 50 years, the merger went ahead. Since then there have been several initiatives from police in a bid to answer critics and get officers back on the beat. The latest is a new system of so-called "neighbourhood" policing which relies heavily on the services of police community support officers. The value of these officers has been questioned across the country because they do not have full training or the powers of a fully warranted police officer. On Monday, Sgt Bromell gave a presentation to town councillors defending the use of PCSOs and explaining the way forward for policing in the town. He faced stern questioning from Mr Dutton, who was determined to get a clear answer on the future of the town's police station. "I have nothing to suggest that it won't be open for the remainder of my police career," Sgt Bromell replied. "I don't think it would be allowed to close," he told the meeting. Insp Laurie Rickwood, who heads the Longmoor police sector, backed him up, declaring to the meeting: "Even if there was a review of the estate, I would be very surprised if Petersfield police station was to close." As reported in The Herald last week, Petersfield's neighbourhood police team is to consist of Sgt Bromell leading four police constables and up to six PCSOs. He told councillors there were currently two on the beat in the town and a further two would complete their training on February 24. In addition, a further two PCSOs would be joining the ranks in the spring. A cautious Sgt Bromell told the meeting: "At the moment we seem to have more officers than we asked for," and the cuts proposed to the neighbourhood policing system across the country did not seem to have affected the town. He said it was the team's job was to look after Petersfield and its surrounding villages - Liss, Buriton, East Meon, Froxfield and Privett. He said it was not their responsibility to answer 999 calls, but to tackle issues in the town such as anti-social behaviour and to identify problems specific to Petersfield. "We have drawn up a top 10 hit-list of objectives," he told the meeting. "This list will in future be set up through the community and these objectives will be reviewed every three months." In addition, he said the police CID department was based at Alton, which could be called in to investigate crime, and Insp Simon Dodds at Alton had been given responsibility to set up a "tasking and co-ordinating group" (TCG) in an attempt to "make our policing more intelligence-led." • Sgt Bromell said that each of his four "beat managers", formerly known as Pcs, had drawn up "top 10" lists of the most pressing issues on their beats. The four lists dealt with problems in the centre of Petersfield, on the outskirts of the town, in Liss, and in the rural villages around Petersfield. The current 10 priorities drawn up for the centre of Petersfield are: • Liaise with Shopwatch to improve efficiency • Increase contact with town centre pubs to target trouble makers as part of Pubwatch • Drive down crime and anti-social behaviour at railway station which has become a hot-spot • Crack down on under-age drink ing • Monitor dangerous, deserted former dairy building in Station Road • Identify hazardous pavements • Watch out for the behaviour of two troublemakers known to the police • Target rowdyism and under-age drinking in The Square • Target noise nuisance and car crime at night in The Square.