OFFICIALS behind a three-year strategy to crackdown on crime and anti-social behaviour in Darlington are confident their tough targets can be achieved.

The Community Safety Partnership is working with Darlington Borough Council and the town's police officers to tackle a number of key issues, including reducing the number of house burglaries and increasing the number of drug users receiving treatment for their addiction.

The strategy was drawn up in response to the results of a borough-wide survey of residents' views, which was carried out in December, and to coincide with national targets set by the Home Office.

The targets include a ten per cent drop in anti-social behaviour, a 32 per cent increase in the number of drug users receiving treatment, a ten per cent decrease in the number of house burglaries and ensuring the number of repeat victims of domestic violence does not exceed 30 per cent.

A task group has been set up to look at tackling anti-social behaviour problems and two extra police officers are expected to be appointed to help put the plan into practice.

The strategy was discussed by the public protection and community partnerships scrutiny committee, at the Town Hall yesterday.

Anti-social behaviour co-ordinator for the partnership, Rob Jones, said: "We realise the challenges we have set are tough, but we are confident they can be achieved.

"We are hopefully getting two additional police officers to boost the number in the force and this may increase even further in the future.

"It is the national plan to have more than 24,000 new police recruits, but how they will distributed across the country is not yet known."

The anti-social behaviour task group is putting together an action plan, which could lead to community wardens being given new powers to tackle issues such as graffiti, litter, abandoned cars, waste, noise and dog fouling more effectively.

Five of the town's community wardens have already been given more power to enable them to deal with anti-social behaviour, including being allowed to ask for the offender's name and address to issue fixed penalty notices.

At yesterday's meeting, however, Mr Jones stressed that until these powers are granted, the police should remain the public's first point of contact.