CIVIC leaders plan to invest nearly £300,000 in major new schemes to tackle the menace of burglaries and prostitution in Bolton.

If the twin bids for government cash are successful two new projects will be set up in the town.

Councillors want to secure funding for specialist teams to work with drug abusers after they leave prison and persuade them to turn their back on a life of Crime.

And they also want to fund more detailed research into the most effective ways of cutting prostitution in Bolton's red light district.

Bolton Council's social inclusion and community safety committee members have asked the government for a total of £284,954 from the Crime Prevention Programme fund.

Regular complaints about prostitution in residential streets on The Haulgh have prompted the council to take action.

Cabinet member for social inclusion and community safety Cllr Frank White said: "We are not promising that we can eliminate the problem of prostitution in Bolton. "It has gone on since Biblical times and no one can stop it completely.

"We are determined that women who feel forced into going on the streets are given the opportunity to do something else with their lives."

Police, council and health officials have already been studying the findings of projects designed to tackle prostitution in other parts of the country.

In one in Doncaster, outreach workers have gone on the streets to show the women other opportunities that allow them to break free from prostitution.

Cllr White said: "We want to look at the options in as much detail as possible so that we can learn from what has been done and put in place the best possible schemes."

Last month residents in Herons Way, off Manchester Road, complained that street girls were operating near their homes.

The bid for cash has been welcomed by local HomeWatch co-ordinator John Stanaway.

He said: "We do our best by being vigilant and keeping the prostitutes and kerb-crawlers away.

"We know they are only a few hundred yards away and we welcome anything that could cut their number."

Councillors will hear in the next two months if their £95,810 bid for the project is granted.

They will find out at the same time about their £189,144 bid for the burglary project.

Cllr White said: "We have got to take a new attitude to the burglary problem. We know much of it is committed by drug addicts desperate for their next fix.

"If we can show them that there are other lifestyles which don't involve crime it will be money well spent."

If the Burglary Reduction Initiative is approved, Wigan and Bolton Health Authority will lead the scheme employing staff to work on a one-to-one basis with ex-offenders.

Bolton schools have received a £72,000 boost for drug education from the Department for Education and Employment, designed to improve the quality of education on the dangers of drugs. Bury education authority has been awarded £52,670 in the same scheme.