THE number of police officers on the beat in Lancashire will continue to rise according to Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw.

The promise came after Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle pressed Mr Straw for reassurance on police recruitment in the county.

The Home Secretary replied that following on from the 36 extra officers recruited to Lancashire Constabulary since March 2000 he would ensure that towns such as Chorley received the full benefits of increased numbers of officers.

Mr Hoyle said: "Mr Straw made a clear promise to ensure that the people of Chorley will reap the rewards of the Government's investment through continued increase in the numbers being recruited into the Lancashire police force.

"Law and order is an extremely important issue and people want to know that their local community is going to be supported.

"The level of crime and indeed the fear of crime have to be reduced by increasing police numbers and I know from speaking to people in Chorley that they want to see more officers on the beat.

"The Home Secretary's reassurances over policing in Lancashire is welcome news and I look forward to rising numbers of police officers in Chorley as the Government's recruitment drive bears fruit."

So far this year 200 new officers have joined Lancashire police, more than double the figure for each of the previous three years. The total number of officers is now in the region of 3,400.

The force also has an ethnic minority recruitment target to increase the number of ethnic officers to 165 by 2010. There are currently 50.