BULLY for Lancashire's chief constable, Pauline Clare - keeping her promise to put more bobbies on the beat.

An extra hundred of them, no less.

True, some of the increase is down to the government coming up with the funds for more officers.

But that is not before time - when one recalls how often, in the past, Mrs Clare's predecessor pleaded that Lancashire needed scores more PCs and, routinely, the Home Office's response was to leave the force badly under-strength.

Yet, we learn that the rest of the increase is down to good housekeeping on the police budget and that Mrs Clare hopes to provide more officers on the streets in the coming years. It is a policy which will pay real dividends.

For as public confidence grows and people perceive that the war against crime is being stepped up on the front-line and in their neighbourhood, the force will receive mounting public co-operation for their task.

And that is a vital factor which was allowed to diminish when the presence of the bobby in the community became less apparent to honest and worried citizens.

These extra 100 officers will help turn the tide back the right way.

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