THE Government last night faced growing calls to include the North-East in a new nationwide crackdown on street crime.

MPs said they were bewildered that the region seemed to have been ignored in the Robbery Reduction Initiative.

About 5,000 traffic officers across the country are to be put back on the beat to beef up squads targeting thugs in London, on Merseyside, Lancashire, the West Midlands, Avon and Somerset, West and South Yorkshire, Thames Valley, Nottingham and Manchester.

Ashok Kumar, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said he found it inexplicable that crime-hit areas had been left out.

Dr Kumar is to take up Teesside's omission from the pilot scheme list with Home Secretary David Blunkett.

He said: "I welcome this new initiative, which will put more resources and effort into tackling street crime through the application of zero tolerance measures, but I am very concerned that Cleveland, which certainly has problems arising from such crimes, is being left out of the first wave of pilots.

"I feel that some of the other areas - such as the Thames Valley or Avon and Somerset - are a lot quieter than Cleveland, and that Cleveland should be considered again.

"Accordingly, I am writing to the Home Secretary pointing out these facts. Put simply, to an elderly person who may have been the victim of street crime in Middlesbrough, or east Cleveland, the fact that parts of the leafy south-East are benefiting from this initiative will be of little comfort."

But a Home Office spokesman said there were no immediate plans to extend the scheme to any of the North-East police forces, although it had not been ruled out.

He said: "These areas have been chosen because they have the worst problems. It is not a good thing to be on this particular list as regards crime levels.

"It is possible that the scheme could be extended at some future date."

Meanwhile, more police officers are to be put on the beat in an effort to drive down crime levels in Darlington.

There are now 88 core officers in Darlington who will deal with priority, ongoing incidents that need a quick response, such as road accidents and serious crimes.

Another 22 beat officers will operate in specific areas and will also have a detective each working in their wards.