TORIES in Blackburn and Darwen have called for warden patrols to be brought in to increase security on council estates.

Coun John Williams has asked housing chiefs to ask a company which has been responsible for fitting alarms to empty council houses, how much it would cost to set up a warden scheme.

Seventy six houses in Darwen have already been protected by the alarms and the council's housing committee has now taken the decision to extend the scheme in to Blackburn.

The alarms mean there is no need for metal screens on the windows of empty homes which have been described as "ugly" and a barrier to persuading new tenants to move on to an estate.

Coun Williams said: "This has been an excellent scheme and we hope it will continue on now to bring vast improvements to the visual appearance of estates. But we have asked in the past for costings to find out how much we would have to pay for security patrols."

Housing committee chairman Coun Stephen Greenwood said: "We will certainly look into this."

The alarms are cheaper to install than metal screens and alerts officers at a central monitoring station if there is a break in. Once the alarm has been activated, security officers go the scene and, if necessary, call the police.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.