CHURCHES in East Lancashire are to be opened up to homosexuals wanting to report hate crimes in a bid to give police a true picture of the problem.

Police chiefs have revealed they plan to use 'third party centres' -- which will also include doctors' surgeries and health clinics -- to encourage gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and trans-sexual members of the community to report incidents.

The move, which has been welcomed by clergy and the gay lobby group Stonewall, comes after officers felt many victims were intimidated at the thought of going to a police station because of the nature of the crimes.

The proposal is part of a wider package of initiatives designed to make the police more accessible to the homosexual community.

Victims will be encouraged to talk to their religious leader of doctor but leaflets will also be available if they want to fill in details of the crime anonymously.

The move comes after police began logging any incident thought to have a racist motive even if it wasn't strictly a crime, in a bid get an indication of the true extent of the problem.

The same is now happening with homosexual-related incidents and police hope the scheme will lead to more incidents being reported, enabling the police to tackle the problems more realistically.

People will now also be able to report race-hate crimes at the third party centres.

Officers are now being trained on how to deal with 'homophobic' crimes and had been given manuals on how best to approach sensitive issues.

Superintendent Alfred Hitchcock said: "We need to encourage people to come forward and tell us when they have suffered a homophobic hate crime, and their friends and relatives need to feel confident to come and talk to us as well. "But we hope that they will be encouraged to use third party centres and report crimes themselves, even if it is anonymously.

"These victims sometimes don't want to come direct to the police.

"It is important that we get a true picture of the number of crimes being committed so we know how best to deal with them. They would have the support of people within that third party centre as well."

Insp Richard Debicki, from the police's community and race-relations department said: "We expect to see race and homophobic hate incidents rise as a result of these changes but that is good because we will know where we stand."

The Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev John Goddard, said: "It would be up to each church to decide if they wanted to participate but I welcome it because we should do all we can to stop people from becoming stigmatised and marginalised."

The Rev Kevin Logan, vicar of Christ Church in Accrington, said: "In the eyes of the Church of England, anything other than heterosexuality is a sin and is not what God intended of man and woman.

"But we are all sinners in one way or another and as a church, we teach forgiveness and help sinners as well.

"Hate crimes and persecution are the worst possible things to happen to people and we would have to help people caught in this situation get help."

Minister at Barnes Square Methodist Church, Clayton-le-Moors, Kenneth Walton, said: "As a Methodist church, we do not tolerate any form of homophobic behaviour. "We are part of the community and it is our responsibility to help out where we can."

Father Joe Feeley, of St Mary's RC Church, Clayton-le-Moors, said: "It is something I would be happy to allow into the church because we wouldn't be forcing it on to people, it would simply be there for people who need it.

"However, in this modern day, many churches are locked up nearly all of the time which means they aren't that accessible."

A spokesman for Stonewall said: "It is good to see the church and the police recognising just how serious homophobic crimes are.

"By putting new systems in place to make it easier and less of an ordeal to report crime, we hope gay people will feel safer."