A senior Kent police officer has had his beat widened to include the whole of England and Wales.

Chief Inspector Mark Harrison is one of only two police officers to be appointed to a 10-strong taskforce set up by the Home Office to tackle some of the country's most persistent anti-social behaviour problems.

Mr Harrison has been in the forefront of the Kent Police battle against anti-social behaviour as head of the partnership and crime reduction department.

He thinks that taking his experience nationwide will have the extra benefit of enabling him to pick up new ideas to help Kent.

His advisory role with the Government's Respect Squad was confirmed by Home Secretary John Reid who said: "Anti-social behaviour ruins lives and fragments communities - particularly those in some of the most deprived areas of our country.

"The Respect Squad will ensure there is no let up in tackling anti-social behaviour, until every community in every part of the country gets a swift and effective response to their problem."

Mr Harrison said: "The Home Secretary is absolutely right - anti-social behaviour is the stuff that blights lives in towns and rural areas

"It's everything from fly-tipping to prostitution, graffiti to kids on mini-motor bikes, drunks to drug dealers - and a whole lot more in between.

"More than 200 miles of coastline, numerous rivers and large areas of countryside bring their own problems which need special solutions."

Successful initiatives in Kent have removed dumped and un-taxed cars from the streets, imposed dispersal orders to create no-go zones for troublemakers and cracked down on the misuse of fireworks. The force has also dealt with nuisance water-bike riders, worked to tackle illegal forest raves and arrested people who cause offence by practising outdoor sex.

"The police can't tackle anti-social behaviour in all its forms on their own," said Mr Harrison. "The progress we have made in Kent has resulted from joining forces with a wide range of other organisations - such as local authorities, residents' groups, the RSPCA, Forestry Commission and many others.

"The continuing recruitment of police community support police officers and wardens has brought enormous benefits and we have taken advantage of the new anti-social behaviour legislation that is available to us.

"It's wrong to think that the kind of trouble we deal with is exclusively down to young people. For instance, of the 197 Anti-social Behaviour Orders made in Kent since the year 2000 half of them were against adults."

Kent Assistant Chief Constable, David Ainsworth, said: "This appointment is testimony to the tremendous amount of work that has gone on across Kent, with considerable success, by the police and other organisations in recent years to stop anti-social behaviour.

"Now other areas will be able to benefit from our experiences. But no one has all the answers, and I am equally certain that Kent will benefit enormously by learning from the work that's going on in other parts of the country. I'm sure we'll adopt initiatives in this county and apply them where we know it will have a positive effect."