Even if you turned up on the right day of the week there was a 50-50 chance that it would be the wrong week. It should have been to some predictable pattern – perhaps the first and third weeks of the month, for example, then you could work out in advance whether it would be open.
But that was last year. Now the police are more realistic and we are told to ring first to find out opening hours.
That was then. Now we don't have local police at all. These days we have a "Safer Neighbourhood Team". I've learned to cope with the change in name. I can even quote the phone number I need to use to talk to the SNT - it's 0845 456 4567.
Nor am I concerned that the team is not made up entirely of police officers. The majority are Police Community Support Officers, effectively a new name for what we used to call the "Bobby on the beat".
I know that some people were concerned that they weren't "proper" police when the idea of PCSOs was introduced. But you don't need over-trained (and highly-paid) officers to act the Bobby role, just people in a recognisable uniform who are courteous, can listen to people's concerns and have the confidence and assertiveness to handle the unruly and abusive when they encounter them.
However, the really good thing about the Safer Neighbourhood Team is that there is a regular opportunity to talk with some of the team and their bosses at regular meetings. At these, you can get your worries across to them, while they explain the problems and issues as they see them.
The poster announcing the next meeting gives the names and shows photos of every one of the team and tells you their current priorities. These are various problems of anti-social behaviour, noise, anti-social use of cars, neighbour nuisance, harassment and behaviour of youths in various roads and streets in both Necton and Swaffham.
The meeting is to be held at the Assembly Rooms, Swaffham, on Tuesday at 7.30pm. Go along if you have any worries about policing in your neighbourhood, and if you can't get there, you know the number to ring.