CRIME fighting initiatives in East Lancashire will benefit from a share of more than £20 million of Government cash.

High crime areas in the region will be given a total of £233,392 over the coming year as part of the Safer Communities Initiative.

A similar amount of cash has been promised by Government ministers for 2003-2004 with a "likelihood" of further money in the future.

The Safer Communities Initiative money will be used to support community crime fighting schemes such as:

Mobile police stations and extra police on the streets in high crime areas.

Anti-burglary projects.

Targeting prolific offenders.

Tackling anti-social behaviour through promoting pub watch schemes and encouraging the use of anti-social behaviour orders.

Youth work such as working with schools to reduce truancy.

Although figures show most crime is falling in East Lancashire, robbery continues to rise and showed an increase of 13 per cent last year.

Home Office Minister John Denham said: "The Safer Communities Initiative will provide extra resources to help local crime reduction partnerships tackle crime locally.

"This money is just the start. Local partnerships can plan on the basis that they will receive at least the same funding again in 2003-2004, with the likelihood that more funding will be available in subsequent years."

Most of the £20million has gone to the areas involved in the Robbery Reduction Initiative launched last month.

The scheme covers the ten forces which deal with 82 per cent of all robberies in England and Wales, including the Metropolitan Police, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Avon and Somerset, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Thames Valley and Lancashire.

In Lancashire the cash allocation is: Blackburn with Darwen, £56,397; Burnley, £43,451; Hyndburn, £30,905; Pendle, £32,125; Ribble Valley, £16,024; Rossendale, £25,724 and Chorley, £28,766.

Lancashire's Assistant Chief Constable Steve Finnigan said: "All our crime fighting partnerships will benefit from this additional funding which means more support for all our community initiatives.

"We will be working with our partners to determine the most effective ways of using this money to best address local issues.

"This may include special operations, high-visibility policing and tackling persistent offending."