L AST week some of you within the Bristol East area may have found yourselves being approached by a couple of street canvassers.

Although in most high streets this may not be unusual, these were not the normal type looking to promote their latest product.

These canvassers were wearing police community support uniforms and were looking to obtain your views on a whole range of issues which are important to you or may effect the area where you live in.

Over the past 12 months or so officers in their respective beat areas have been holding Partnership and Communities Together meetings (Pact) so members of the public could voice their concerns about any issues, no matter how minor, which has affected their quality of life.

Several issues arose from these meetings, one being that a poorly attended meeting could result in our policing priorities for the following few months being decided by a very small minority of people (at some meetings the turnout could be as low as five). Another was that the priorities set normally affected the residents who lived directly within the immediate area where the meeting was taking place and may have little consequence to other outlying areas on the beat.

So to address this a decision was made that in the few weeks leading up to a Pact meeting officers would use engagement opportunities like beat surgeries or coffee mornings along with high profile police patrols to canvass residents' opinions.

The results would then be fed into the meeting and the attendees would also be asked to take these into account.

The results appear to already have shown a more balanced approach to setting our priorities for the next couple of months, as they have taken into account issues not only raised by residents at the meeting, but also appear to meet the needs of residents in other areas. We have moved away from issues like cycling on pavements and litter dropping to tackling criminal activity like prostitution, drug dealing and anti-social behaviour.

So if you are walking down your local street and you get stopped by an officer with a clipboard then please take five minutes to fill in the survey. Because although you may not always have time to attend one of our Pact meetings at least you can rest assured that your views can and will be taken into consideration and could lead to you shaping the way we police for the next few months.

To see what Pact priorities have been set where you live log on to avonandsomersetconstabulary.co.uk and click "My Area".