Tony Blair has pledged to provide a team of beat police in every neighbourhood in Sussex following an increase in the number of community support officers.

The Government will spend an extra £340 million over the next three years to quadruple the number of CSOs to 24,000 by 2008, the Prime Minister announced.

The extra CSOs have yet to be allocated to specific areas but Sussex so far has 149.

The Prime Minister yesterday hailed a fourfold increase in the new officers who will supplement police officers in creating dedicated neighbourhood policing teams for every community.

Mr Blair said: "This enables us to bring neighbourhood policing back. We have to work out how to allocate the numbers and resources but all neighbourhoods will have dedicated teams.

"The key thing is to get a visible uniformed presence on the streets. That's what it's all about."

By 2008, every neighbourhood will have its own dedicated team featuring a mixture of police officers, special constables and CSOs.

The scheme has already been successfully piloted in Merseyside, divided into 43 neighbourhoods of typically two or three council wards.

Home Office surveys suggest crime has gone down.