POLICE have praised residents on the King's Farm estate for helping reduce crime over the last few years.

A focus of police activity, King's Farm has been given its own beat officer and has benefited from youth workers and CCTV cameras.

Inspector Martin Cunningham's strategy praises the "thriving residents' association" run by Les Uden.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "Things have been getting better around here. Burglaries are down but there's still a big problem with youths driving cars around. The police still need to tackle that problem."

King's Farm has been replaced by Northfleet West as one of North Kent Police's focus areas. They say "further work needs to be carried out".