HOME Secretary David Blunkett was today announcing a five-year plan to stamp out anti-social behaviour.

He was promising that more bobbies would patrol towns and cities to rid the streets of yobs.

And neighbourhood police teams will be set up, mirroring successful schemes already operating in Merseyside, Surrey and parts of London. There will also be more civilian wardens. They will go up fourfold to 20,000.

Mr Blunkett believes crime can be reduced by 15 per cent by 2009.

Satellite technology will be used to track the country's most persistent criminals.

The five-year plan was being launched with a speech by Tony Blair, seeking once again to refocus on domestic issues after the controversy over the Butler Report into the use of intelligence in Iraq.

The Prime Minister was expected to say that Mr Blunkett's plant heralded "the end of the 1960s liberal consensus" on law and order.

His Labour colleagues have backed the Home Office plan. Leigh MP Andy Burnham, Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Blunkett, said: "We want to take troublemakers off the streets and invest in communities hit by crime. We feel that having a greater policing presence on the street will help to deter criminals."

The neighbourhood police teams, Mr Blunkett says, will work with residents in crime-hit areas to tackle probnlems of anti-social behaviour.

Community support officers will work alongside the police to provide a greater presence in the community. They will carry a mobile phone while on patrol, to report crime directly from the crime scene.

Mr Blunkett said: "These radical plans are the foundation of a new, modern way of providing security and order.

"A way where local officers can deal effectively with and solve local issues."

Bolton South-East MP Dr Brian Iddon, said: "I applaud anything that will help rid the streets of Bolton of anti social behaviour. Having a greater police presence has worked in Manchester before. During the Commonwealth Games the crime rate fell because there was visible policing on the streets. That is what is needed."

Chief Supt Dave Lea, head of Bolton Police, said: "This is good news, which will enable us to build on our success so far in making Bolton a safe place to live, work and visit. We have been working hard during the last 12 months to bring down crime and met the tough targets we have been set - this will help us even further to do that."

But Bradshaw Conservative councillor Paul Brierley condemned the Government's policy on community wardens.

He said: "This is just policing on the cheap. I would welcome anything that would see more full-time police officers on the streets but not part-time community police."