COUNCIL tax rises could help put an estimated 100 police officers bank on the beat during the next two years, according to Durham's Chief Constable Paul Garvin.

The chief constable's request to increase by 19p a week the police element of the tax paid by most of County Durham's households would pay for changes in police communications and in the staffing of custody suites.

The increase, which will be considered by Durham Police Authority on Friday, would take the charge for Band D property from £64 to £79.

If approved, it would bring Durham's police budget for 2003-2004 to £95.7m, compared with just over £89m in the current financial year.

Mr Garvin said that, despite these increases, the charges would remain the lowest levied by any of the 35 non-metropolitan forces in England and Wales.

He said: "We are being repeatedly told by members of the public they want the reassurance of seeing more officers on the streets and that is what we have been consistently doing year on year.

"The strength of the force is at an all-time high and we are looking to recruit more.

"The extra cash would enable us to release more officers back to front-line work."

Under a proposed reorganisation of the call-handling network, the force plans to replace the headquarters control room and its five remaining divisional units with two centres.

One will be at the headquarters complex and the other at Bishop Auckland police station.

Each centre will operate around the clock and be responsible for emergency and routine calls from the public in the north and south of the county, respectively.

The centres will also handle radio traffic from police officers, a responsibility that in the past has been shared by headquarters and the divisional communications rooms.

It has been estimated that the changes, which will result in more civilian support staff being recruited, could effectively free up more than 80 trained officers for front-line work.

In addition, plans to release the equivalent of 20 uniformed officers from custody work in police stations, by replacing them with civilian specialists, would also be funded by the increase in council tax.