THE new Chief Constable of Durham was appointed last week - and received an immediate call of support from the man he is replacing.

Paul Garvin, 53, the current deputy chief constable of Durham Constabulary, is to take over the top job after the retirement of George Hedges this autumn.

And Mr Hedges was the first person to ring and congratulate him.

When asked about his prioities for the future of policing in County Durham, Mr Garvin was keen to acknowledge what has already been achieved.

"Durham is acknowledged as one of the best performing and best-equipped forces in Britain.

"I've been used to working for a force that's been achieving great things over the last few years, particularly being the only force that had an HMI report last year that didn't have any recommendations in it, which was a tremendous accolade," he says.

"I'm very proud to continue down that road of excellence. It really is a good force and it's an absolute thrill being chosen to lead it.

"The strength of Durham Constabulary has been in doing the right thing in the right way, and we have a philosophy that's based on continuous improvement and aiming for excellence.

"We can always do things better, but I'm not looking for any radical change in direction, that's for sure."

Mr Hedges will retire at the end of September after five years as chief constable, with Mr Garvin expected to take over the £98,000-a-year job in October.

He beat off competition from four other candidates and had to impress a firm of private consultants as well as the police authority to secure it.

Before joining the Durham force in March 2000, Mr Garvin worked for Cleveland Police. A North-East man born and bred, he has served in the region for most of his career, and originally applied to Durham Constabulary for his first job, but was turned down because the force was only recruiting its own cadets at the time, so went to Cleveland.

Knowing the area and its people, he believes their main concern, far from headline-making crime, is low category offences and anti-social behaviour, which he aims to address as chief constable.

The force has already made recruiting more officers a priority, and aims to have a total of 1,672 by next March, but this has not prevented a rise in the number of burglaries, as revealed in the latest Government crime figures.

According to Mr Garvin, the situation is not as bad as elsewhere, but he acknowledges that, from a victim's point of view, burglary is among the worst of crimes.

"It's a crime that has the most damaging effect on people so it's always one of the force's objectives to try and drive down burglary, and we've been really successful in the past few years.

"The really frustrating thing is where you have prolific burglars who are put before the court and are allowed out on bail and commit more offences," he said.

Mr Garvin is a the father of two grown-up children and lives with his wife Margaret in County Durham.