A decade ago, the biggest issue for police in one Cornwall town was dealing with raucous teenagers fighting and being sick in the streets after a boozy night out.

Now, theres a different kind of battle facing cops on the streets of Newquay the scourge of heroin and crack cocaine.

Inspector Dave Meredith, Newquays most senior police officer, has retired after 26 years of service in the force.

And in his final interview with Cornwall Live, Inspector Meredith revealed that his proudest achievement is his role in the transformation of Newquay from a Wild West party destination to a more tranquil and responsible town .

Within the space of eight days in the summer of 2009, two teenagers plummeted to their deaths off the resorts cliffs, while a third was lucky to survive after suffering a broken neck and fractured skull.

The deaths of 19-year-old Andrew Curwell and Paddy Higgins, 16, put the town in the spotlight both nationally and abroad, exposing its so-called seedy underbelly and furthering its reputation as the hard-core party capital of the UK.

If you were young and looking for fun, the 'coast of dreams' was the place to be.

In June 2009 alone, 12,000 students descended on Newquay to celebrate the end of their exams. Teens were encouraged to visit Newquay in unsupervised groups to party in a town with lax rules, packed with an array of clubs, pubs and lap-dancing bars.

Shocked by the booze fuelled behaviour of revellers fighting and being sick in the streets, many visiting families were leaving their accommodation after just a single night.

The media glare left locals feeling disillusioned and sharpened the focus of campaigners, who vowed to take back the town and demanded answers from the council and police.

Residents protested outside County Hall in Truro, before later marching through the streets of Newquay to demand an end to the drunken, antisocial behaviour by thousands of young people.

Placards reading Stop the Rot, New Newquay, More Police for Newquays Streets and Keep Stags and Hens on the Farm were brandished by indignant mothers, fathers, elderly residents and children.

Cornwalls most senior police chief, Chf Supt Elaine Marshall, called for an end to the promotion of Newquay as a party capital and urged community leaders to pull together to reestablish the town as a premier family resort.

And pull together they did.

On Friday August 7, 2009, Cornwall Council launched Newquay Safe, a multi-agency partnership designed to tackle the resorts big problem.

Newquay Safe united the towns police, healthcare, tourism and council bodies, which worked together to create a safer, more family-orientated resort with less antisocial behaviour and crime and disorder.

A number of police strategies were presented, including asking nightclubs to go glass-free, and crackdowns on false IDs, obscene fancy dress and street drinking.

Newquay Safe began with a short-term campaign which lasted throughout August 2009, before the authorities developed a long-term strategy.

In 2009, it was accepted that it would take ten years to turn the town around.

Now, a decade on, Newquay Safe has repaired the towns reputation, reduced crime and made it a family-friendly resort once again.

The town was in a crisis, Inspector Meredith said. The night-time economy was causing the police, residents and local councils big problems, and something had to be done.

There was a culture of Newquay accepting the unacceptable. It was almost people saying, thats the price you pay for having a big night-time economy. And thats wrong, the culture of acceptance was wrong. You can have a good night-time economy, but with responsible behaviour.

Media coverage was very negative, but now we are getting really good coverage of the new Newquay which has evolved.

Residents and visitors seem very happy with Newquay as a family resort. You can come out of a restaurant as a family at 10pm, and there arent people fighting and being sick in the streets."

Nowadays the police work closely with pub and club owners, with most issues ironed out over a cup of tea at the monthly pub watch meeting.

If pub and club owners dont act responsibility, police have increased powers to take action.

Its testimony to the good work of the police and our partners that we didnt give up a year after it was set up," Inspector Meredith added.

We got our heads down, and worked relentlessly year and year out.

While Newquay Safe has been a roaring success, Inspector Meredith says the partners mustnt get complacent.

If we are, we will quickly move backwards and get problem premises again acting in an irresponsible manor, and be back to square one, he said. And we cant afford to do that.

Now, officers in Newquay are faced with a different kind of problem, but one which is far less visible.

Big city dealers are expanding their turf and flooding rural towns with drugs, in the hellish rise of the county lines menace which virtually appeared in Newquay overnight in the summer of 2017.

Its an ongoing battle with no end in sight.

The National Crime Agency estimates that half the communities targeted by county lines dealers are coastal towns, where theres less resistance from other dealers and a lower risk of being known by police.

In Newquay , the problem has escalated to the point that disrupting heroin and crack cocaine dealers is now the number one priority for police, having elevated itself above policing the town centre nightlife.

Its like a supermarket descending on a town and pushing the corner shop out, Inspector Meredith said. They come in, crash bang wallop, sell at low price and to anyone, bang bang bang. Drugs are far more freely available in Newquay, and thats a real concern.

And trying to stop the gangs in their tracks is far from easy. Before, officers were generally aware of who the local homegrown dealers were, and where they lived.

But county lines dealers will often have been operating in Newquay for several weeks, or even months, before police become aware of them.

They travel down from the cities under the radar, and are usually set up in a bedsit within 24 hours.

They keep an extremely low profile in an attempt to evade detection. You wont see them in the town at night, fighting or dealing drugs and bringing attention to themselves.

The dealers will establish themselves inside the home of a drug user or vulnerable person, in a practice known as 'cuckooing'.

They target and then exploit the person's vulnerability and use the home as their base of operations. Once in situ, they seek out the local drug addicts on the streets before selling drugs to them via dedicated mobile phone numbers, or lines.

Customers are given an untraceable mobile phone number with its own brand name, and sent texts offering special deals and fire sales.

There are many reasons why police take drug dealing so seriously. But county lines drug dealers are of particular concern, because of their violent behaviour.

In the cities, these gangs work in a culture that is far more severe than here, with knives and guns, whereas our local dealers its probably just fisticuffs and nothing too serious, Inspector Meredith said.

But youve got people coming from a culture where extreme violence is quite normal, and that is some concern to us.

The secret to successfully stopping the dealers has switched from serving warrants on houses to vehicle stop checks.

While building surveillance on a property can take weeks, finding drugs in a car gives officers the automatic power to search a dealers home.

Inspector Meredith admits there's no end in sight for Newquays war on drugs, which he believes will be the town station's priority for many years to come.

Community intelligence is the key to stopping the drug gangs in their tracks, he said. Police are desperate to hear from anyone who has suspicions over drug dealing.

Were always hearing people complaining about issues in their community. Theyve told a neighbour, they have a good chat about it on social media, but they dont want to tell the police.

"Crimestoppers is a way you can get straight through very quickly with the intelligence, and anonymously.

If anybody comes up on the radar, well do everything we can to take action. If the community doesnt tell us whats going on, it makes it very challenging to take action against drug dealers."

Tell us exactly what is going on. People can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, email 101 or use a police intelligence form to report anything suspicious.

Inspector Merediths final day in the job was on Christmas Eve, and he believes the time is right to hand in his badge.

Newquay is probably the best station in the force, its close knit with a one team ethos and a family atmosphere," Inspector Meredith said.

I feel Newquay is in very good shape, the station is in good shape, and I feel like Im leaving at the crest of a wave.

Im happy with it, and thats probably the best time to leave a job.

Mike's work focuses mainly on crime and longread features.

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From nightclubs to crack - the evolution of a Cornwall town's biggest crime scourge - Cornwall Live