POLICE in Burnley and Pendle have launched a major new crackdown against robbery and street crime.

The year-long clampdown will see police targeting street crime and robbery by trying to eliminate local drug markets with daily raids on dealers.

The police's own research has shown a clear link between drugs and street crime with crack addicts, for example, reliant on crime to fund habits which can cost up to £700 a week.

Police bosses say action against street dealers should double in the coming months and have warned those dealing in drugs that they will be caught.

The scheme, which will cover all of Pennine Division, including Burnley, Nelson and Colne, is part of the Government's Street Crime Initiative launched in February.

Lancashire was one of ten areas across the country to be named by Home Secretary David Blunkett as having the worst figures for street crime, although police in Lancashire say the county is far safer than many other areas.

As well as more officers on the streets, the crackdown will see police working with education authorities to try to identify juvenile offenders and courts opening in the evenings and at weekends to speed up the justice system.

As well as police activity against drug dealers, part of the Safer Streets scheme will involve trying to fund long term solutions to the problem of drug trade and crime.

Det Insp Mark Maxlow, of Burnley Police, who is leading the Safer Streets initiative in Pennine Division, said: "We have quite low numbers of offences of theft from people and robberies, at just over one a day in the whole of the division, but even that is too many and we are treating these type of offences very seriously.

"Anybody who is involved in drug dealing and who is committing offences to fund drug habits will be caught."

Police also warned people not to falsely report incidents of street crime in order to make false insurance claims, for the theft of a mobile phone for example.