Taxpayers are being asked to provide the police with an extra £10 million to help fund the expansion of a controversial community wardens scheme.

The Sussex force wants a total budget of £221.6 million next year to fund 150 more community support officers and a new civilian crime recording unit.

This would mean a rise in the police's share of council tax bills from £97 to £105 a year for people in Band D homes.

The announcement has been greeted with disdain by the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers.

It said extra money should first be spent on increasing the number of beat officers.

The federation's Sussex chairman, Graham Alexander, said: "Our concern is that they certainly do not replace police officers.

"If support officers are supplementary to a well-maintained police strength, that's great.

"But you get a sinking feeling that as time goes by actual police numbers may fall to a whole range of people performing a whole range of functions."

About 74 community support officers work in pairs, dealing with anti-social behaviour and minor offences.

They do not have the power to detain or arrest.

Mark Dunn, chairman of the Sussex Police Authority, said: "Feedback from our public consultation exercises, including responses to our online survey, show people want more local policing with officers patrolling communities and a better service when reporting crime, and we are trying to respond to this.

"This will help us to move towards a more effective, visible and accessible style of policing."

Mr Dunn blamed the Government for the force's council tax demand going up. He said: "None of the extra £340 million cash injection announced by the Chancellor in December for local authorities made its way to the Sussex Police Authority.

"It means we are stuck in a very difficult position. We don't want to have to ask council taxpayers to pay more but we don't want to see local policing services suffer."

The extra money will also fund a new 24-hour crime recording and investigation bureau (CRIB) with a staff of 74.

It will take details of crimes from callers and pass them on to police officers as necessary with the aim of cutting waiting times for police attention.

Mr Dunn said: "Statistics show we are a low-spending authority and we also have a low number of police officers per head of population compared with the shire average for police authorities. Also, Sussex's level of council tax for the current year is 12 per cent below the average for shire authorities."

The police authority is due to set its budget on Thursday.