Police horses are set to return to the streets of Sussex after an absence of almost 20 years.

Senior officers in Hove are convinced horse patrols can cut street crime and reduce the fear of crime. They hope to buy two geldings and stable them at the police station in Holland Road Officers on horseback would patrol streets, parks and the seafront and be stationed outside trouble spots in the evenings.

Senior officers hope they can match the success of officers in Bristol, where mounted patrols have been credited with cutting violent crime by 37 per cent.

Letters are being sent to major companies in the Hove area asking for sponsorship to help pay for the horses.

Until 1984, Sussex Police had a unit of six mounted officers based at Brighton but it was abolished to help pay for the force helicopter at Shoreham.

Chief Inspector Stuart Harrison, second-in-command of the Hove-Shoreham police division, said many felt the abolition was a loss to the character of the area and the force.

He said: "Any reintroduction of a mounted unit I believe would be seen as very positive by residents and visitors."

The plan for mounted patrols is being sent to Sussex Police headquarters for approval and the city council is being asked for permission for the horses to patrol public areas, including the esplanade and to arrange street-cleaning services.

Two geldings, currently in Somerset, are being considered for purchase. Officers would be trained and stables would be built on spare land adjoining Hove police station.

Mr Harrison said police and horses had been associated since 1824 when Sir Robert Peel set up the Metropolitan Police.

He said: "Police horses have for generations provided a highly visible presence, combining authority and physical largness with a benign image.

"A police officer on foot is often invisible to the public in a busy street, but an officer on horseback is both visible and, thanks to the clip-clop of hooves on road, audible to the everyone in the area."

He said during the Seventies and Eighties police and criminologists decried the efforts of police on the beat to tackle crime and mounted officers were seen as old fashioned and ineffective.

He added: "But modern university-based research in this country and the USA has proved this notion incorrect. Much of it suggests it is the impact of the visibility which is important."

Brighton police Superintendent Peter Coll said his division will be watching developments in Hove.

He said if Brighton took up the idea, crowd control would be an area where horses might prove useful.

Brighton and Hove Council leader Councillor Lynette Gwyn Jones said she agreed horses would improve police visibility but she said there were "negative connotations" needing consideration before the idea could be taken further.