The public is getting what it has been demanding for years - bobbies on the streets.

In an initiative that may be copied around Britain, Brighton and Hove police have set up fixed-point patrols on every estate in the city.

Officers are on street corners, at busy junctions and outside shops and pubs most days between 8.30am and 9.30am or 4.45pm and 5.45pm.

They won't move from their sites unless there is an emergency.

A similar scheme in the city centre has led to a dramatic drop in crime.

Calls from the Clock Tower area ran at an average of 120 per week until last month, when an officer was stationed at the site 24 hours a day.

Calls have dropped to two or three a week.

Police are hoping bobbies at fixed positions on the estates will have a similar positive effect.

Chief Inspector Peter Mills, commander of outer city policing, said: "The public have been asking for more high-profile policing and that is exactly what I am giving them.

"It will improve public confidence and reassurance, fight the fear of crime, and deter crime."

The fixed-point sites are:

Moulsecoomb Way, junction Goodwood Way; Giratory, entrance to Saunders Park; The Avenue, junction with Lewes Road; St George's Road, top end by the shops; Broadway shops, Whitehawk; Dillons newsagents, Whitehawk Way; Boundary Road, Portslade; Stoneham Park, Tamworth Road; Portland Road, junctions with Sackville Road and Scott Road; Vale Avenue, Patcham; Asda supermarket, Hollingbury; Eldred Avenue, Westdene; the Grenadier pub, Hangleton and Knoll;

Valley Road and Chalky Road, junction with Graham Avenue in North Portslade; Vale Park and Portslade Village; Preston Park and Five Ways.

Goldstone Villas and Seven Dials; The Level and London Road, entrance to the Open Market; Warren Way shopping area, junction with Falmer Road; Coomb Road, junction with Lewes Road; and The Dip shops, Hollingbury Place.

One police insider said: "This is just the start.

"The idea of getting high-profile, uniformed officers back on the streets will spread throughout the land."

The initiative started today.