New Whitnash beat manager

And Pc Charles Harrison (pictured right) certainly seems well qualified for the job, and other Whitnash concerns such as speeding and a spike in the burglary rate earlier this year.

A former traffic policeman, the Essex-born former engineer has led a safer neighbourhood team in Bedworth for six months as well as being on a specialist burglary team and involved in local investigations, which he describes as being “almost like CID”.

Safety around schools, with parents frequently blocking pavements for pedestrians in their efforts to park close to school gates, is a repeated concern at Whitnash community forums.

He said: “Having to deal with traffic accidents and accidents involving children I can fully appreciate people’s concerns and have already started issuing tickets for people blocking the pavements.”

Prevention is better than cause, and Pc Harrison says he hopes to bring back the ‘park and stride’ scheme using the car park of the Plough and Harrow pub once refurbishment there is complete.

He also said he would use common sense in issuing fines in Whitnash’s narrow streets, explaining he would use the width of a double buggy as one way of judging whether a car was dangerously parked.

Thanking outgoing beat manager Pc Manjit Sidhu, Warwick district councillor Bernard Kirton (Ind, Whitnash) said Pc Sidhu had put her stamp on the job, and that he looked forward to working with Pc Harrison.