NEWLY-appointed community support officers have gone on patrol to back up beat bobbies across a police division.

The first five police community support officers have taken to the streets of Durham and Chester-le-Street, carrying out high visibility patrols.

Debbie Sadler-Watson, Jean Fenwick, Malcolm Knox, Phil Raine and Steve Bell, are former traffic wardens who have been re-trained, re-surfacing in their new role, with distinctive police-style uniforms, this week.

They will be joined in November by six more support officers who will begin five weeks' training at the end of this month.

Apart from their traditional traffic duties the officers are now empowered to deal with moving traffic offences, and assist police in tackling nuisance and anti-social behaviour.

Although they do not have power of arrest, they can confiscate alcohol from under-18s, cigarettes from under-16s, and issue fixed penalty tickets for littering and dog fouling, as well as to cyclists using footpaths. They can take part in the seizure of vehicles and they also have power of entry into premises to save life and limb.

Officer Raine said: "We are generally assisting the police in their role. We can observe and report, as well as help intelligence gathering.

"But it's really about providing a high-visibility presence which may help to deter anti-social behaviour and nuisance on the streets."

Officer Sadler-Watson said the response so far from the public has been favourable.

"Hopefully, it will remove the traffic warden stigma and we'll be seen as a friend rather than an enemy," she said.

Officers will be on patrol in the streets of Durham, Chester-le-Street and many surrounding villages, between 8am and 10pm.

The first ten support officers in the Durham force area went on patrol in Darlington in January, and, with Home Office grant aid, plus other funding, a further 14 are being recruited to cover Sedgefield and Stanley areas, as well as the eventual 11 being deployed in Durham and Chester-le-Street.