NOW that the summer holidays have come to an end, much to the relief of many parents and carers, myself included, who have had to entertain their children over what seems a very long six weeks, I wanted to introduce one of our school link officers, PC Kevin Hughes.

PC Hughes is based at Musselburgh Police Station and is the school link officer covering Musselburgh Grammar School; Preston Lodge High School, Prestonpans; and Ross High School, Tranent, along with their feeder primary schools.

He has an important role within the school environment, working closely with headteachers, senior school management teams and guidance staff.

PC Hughes works within the GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) principles and values and provides support to schools for a wide range of incidents such as child protection, bullying cases and intervention, restorative work and any incidents of a criminal nature.

His work also takes on a preventative role by providing class inputs to all age groups on topics ranging from cyber-bullying, internet safety, hate crime and anti-social behaviour to knife crime, choices for life, staying safe and drugs.

Partnership working is key and interaction is required with outside agencies such as East Lothian Council social work and anti-social behaviour team, specialist youth workers, community wardens and invaluable organisations such as [social enterprise] Heavy Sound and [schools’ counselling service] MYPAS.

The role is highly challenging but can be very rewarding knowing that a difference can be made.

In addition to work within the schools, our community policing team is also involved in road safety issues around our schools, particularly our primary schools, where inconsiderate and careless parking and failure to observe traffic restrictions are issues.

PC Emma Stewart from our Haddington Community Policing Team was out on Tuesday morning on Neilson Park Road and Victoria Road, Haddington, ensuring that drivers complied with the traffic regulation order (TRO) set out by our partners at East Lothian Council.

The purpose of the TRO is to prohibit vehicle access to Neilson Park Road, Victoria Road and Wemyss Place during school drop-off and pick-up times to ensure the safety of our children. 

Numerous drivers were warned regarding accessing these roads and officers will continue to enforce this and will be issuing vehicle tickets should the TRO continue to be contravened.