WARRINGTON will soon have an extra 22 community support officers (CSOs) to tackle anti-social behaviour.

They will cost the borough council £11,000 each a year after the Government agreed to subsidise 65 per cent of the cost for the next three years.

They will be deployed mainly as First Response' anti-social behaviour officers after councillors rejected the option of using them to target specific types of crime.

"The ethos of CSOs is that they are deployed according to the community need," said Clr Graham Welborn (LD), executive board member for safer communities.

"This decision protects their central role as a high-profile visible presence."

Four CSOs will be assigned to each of Warrington's four neighbourhood action teams (NATs) and another four will work exclusively in the Stronger Together Neighbourhood Management Project.

The remaining two will be given extra training in tackling business crime and being told to work in areas with high concentrations of business, such as Gemini, Birchwood, Stockton Heath and the proposed Omega development.

The move is expected to pave the way for local authorities and the police to start encouraging private businesses to fund CSOs themselves.

The Government plans to increase the number of CSOs nationally from 6,300 to 16,000 by 2008.

Clr Peter Walker (LD), executive board member for corporate services, said parish councils already with their own sponsored CSO should not worry about missing out on the extra manpower.

"When the need arises they will be drafted in to solve any problems," he said.