HAVING previously come under fire for the allegedly hollow increases in police number he announced at Labour's annual conference, Home Secretary Jack Straw today delivers the extra bobbies that the fight against crime truly needs.

For against a background of falling police recruitment and rising crime nationally, he turns the £667million announced in the last month's Government Spending Review into 4,000 more officers by 2003.

And, coupled with an existing plan to recruit an extra 5,000, Britain should have 9,000 more by the following year.

For Lancashire, the two initiatives mean an extra 75 officers this year and reinforcement being kept at that level for the following two years so that the force will have 226 more in three years' time. Sensibly, this boost has been tied to targets for that include not only significant reductions in burglary and vehicle crime over the next five years, but also reductions in days lost through sickness, progress towards meeting quotas for recruiting officers from ethnic minorities and annual efficiency savings.

Clearly and rightly, the main aim of this is to steer the new resources towards front-line policing.

And it is significant that today the Police Federation in Lancashire demands that the extra recruitment does translate into more officers on patro -- as it maintains this is where the manpower shortages are.

Against such a background, the Lancashire force has performed remarkably in reducing crime in marked contrast to the rising national trend.

But it is vital that this initiative is kept up so that confidence in the police rises in correspondingly.

And there can be no more effective and convincing testimony of our streets becoming safe once more than the regular sight of bobbies on the beat.