In his letter criticising Nancy Platts, Tony Davenport (Letters, November 14) shows a woeful lack of understanding of both modern community policing and current electoral law.

Police community support officers are there to work - as their title suggests - with the local community on community issues.

They are allocated a role which, given the demands of incidents requiring police attendance, response officers cannot attend.

They are part of a neighbourhood policing team which includes "full"

police officers, sergeants and inspectors.

Making PCSOs "full" police officers would inevitably see them allocated full-time to responding to incidents and not fulfilling the role which local residents appreciate.

The Labour Government has added 13,000 police officers nationally since 1997, in addition to more than 6,700 PCSOs.

Mr Davenport quotes the 1983 Representation of the People Act, which he as a frequent candidate should know has long since been superseded by legislation allowing people seeking election to call themselves candidates, doing away with the need for the term "prospective". On this evidence, however, Mr Davenport seems set to remain a prospective candidate for a long time to come.