Crime-busting initiatives which have cut the number of offences in some areas are to be launched throughout Brighton and Hove.

The move will come in a radical shake-up of the city's police force.

Senior officers say they are determined there should be an end to the "retreat from the streets" and that there will be more bobbies back on the beat.

City centre boundaries will be re-drawn to create a central police zone with its own crack team of officers.

City Central will extend from Walpole Terrace in Brighton to Sackville Road in Hove.

It will include The Level, Seven Dials and London Road and will be bounded to the north by the railway line and run southwards to the seafront, effectively creating a force within a force when it begins operating on April 1.

The new team will not only concentrate on hitting drug dealing, violence, burglary and theft but will target quality-of-life issues such as begging, vandalism, graffiti and drunkenness.

The move is part of the amalgamation of the two currently separate Brighton and Hove police divisions.

The combined Brighton and Hove division will be led by newly appointed commander Chief Superintendent Doug Rattray.

Chief Inspector Stuart Harrison, now second in command at Hove, will run the new city centre force.

The outer districts will come under the control of Chief Inspector Peter Mills.

Mr Harrison will take with him many of the initiatives which have sent crime figures in Hove and Shoreham tumbling in the last two years.

The area crime car crews, also known as the Starsky and Hutch team, will target known criminals in the city centre.

The team has had a dramatic impact on the number of arrests for drug offences, burglaries, and car crimes in Hove and Shoreham since it was introduced last year.

In addition, Mr Harrison has 40 mountain bikes on order following the success of a pilot scheme in Hove using six officers on bikes.

"They will patrol the city centre, seafront and parks to help maintain a high visibility police presence.

They will be boosted by a team of seafront officers who will patrol the prom during the summer.

There are also plans to bring in a modern version of the old police boxes to be manned 24 hours a day throughout the year.

They will be more like high-tech sentry boxes than the street corner boxes phased out in the Seventies.

The first will be at the Clock Tower in North Street.

No decision has yet been taken on whether police horses will make a return to the streets.

Mr Harrison is keen to bring them back and new Sussex Chief Constable Ken Jones is currently considering his report.

Mr Harrison said: "My main task will be to build up public confidence in the police in the city centre.

"Both Mr Jones and I are determined to turn around the retreat there has been from the streets and to get more officers out where they can be seen making a difference.

"We will be targeting persistent offenders and addressing quality of life issues which bring the fear of crime to the city centre.

"The new Chief Constable is an inspirational leader and both he and I are determined people will notice a real difference in the way the city is policed from April 1."

City council leader Councillor Ken Bodfish, a Sussex Police Authority member, said: "I welcome the establishment of a city centre zone."

Hove MP Ivor Caplin said: "It is a tribute to the high profile initiatives introduced by Stuart Harrison and the team at Hove that they are now being extended across the city."

Mr Harrison and Superintendent Graham Cox, his former boss at Hove, pioneered a high profile policing policy which has seen crime figures tumble.

The public can find out more about the changes at meetings at Shoreham Community Centre, Pond Road, tonight, at the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton, tomorrow and at The Dudley Hotel, Lansdowne Place, Hove, on Wednesday, all at 7pm.