She's used to the sarky nicknames – Plastic Plod, Blunkett's Bobbies – and the inevitable jokes about Prince William. Kate Middleton is one of Ross-on-Wye's two Police Community Support Officers, and she deals with banter, friendly and otherwise, with the same cheerful aplomb.

"A lot of people", says Kate, "think we just walk around and drink tea with old ladies" – so to put this idea to the test, the Gazette sent a reporter to shadow her for a couple of hours, all over the centre of town and out to Tudorville.

There's no set patrol: the CSOs target any areas of town that have recently had 'problems'. Some problems are recurring and well known, others she learns by talking to people. Today, on a damp Thursday afternoon, she chats to stallholders at the marketplace, one of whom has been approached by a man touting meat in Morrisons packaging – almost certainly stolen. She goes down to the supermarket to alert the manager.

Read the rest of this report in this week's Ross Gazette