Ilkley will become the second place in the country to trial a new police and Neighbourhood Watch anti-crime initiative.

Ten volunteers from the community will be working in partnership with the police to catch criminals by using state of the art digital phones.

Ilkley has been chosen to pilot the scheme because of the increase in crimes where thieves are breaking into homes to steal the keys to high quality cars.

The ten Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators will be given digital phones and if there is a car theft in the area then the police will use the phones to alert them.

The job of the residents is to keep vigilant and report back if they see the car in their area.

The digital phones will allow them to e-mail their responses back to the police immediately and will allow them to have direct contact with an officer, where previously they would have called a voicemail line.

The initiative has recently been introduced in Blackburn, where it is still in its infancy.

Det Chief Inspector Roger Gasson, of the Keighley Division, said: "We are going to try to get £300 funding from the anti-crime partnership in Keighley to purchase ten e-mail telephone machines.

"They are like a telephone but with a display front and we will be giving them to ten neighbourhood co-ordinators who are members of the community. They will help us to improve communications between us and them. For example, if we had a burglary where car keys were stolen, we would pass on the details to the members and warn them to look out for the stolen car.

"If they see anything they can report straight back to us on the e-mail.

"We are wanting to pilot it in Ilkley because the residents are very pro-police and because Ilkley is a hotspot for burglary and car crime. The Neighbourhood Watch is already very well established there.

"We need to finalise the funds for the machines and get them out into people's homes. We will probably ask for volunteers to look after the telephone lines and we will be training them to use it."

The digital phones cost £30 each and are similar to normal standing telephones, but have the ability to send and receive e-mails and text messages to mobile phones.

Addingham Neighbourhood Watch man Harry Rowlinson, of St Peters Court, is not confident the scheme will work in the fight against crime.

"I cannot see how Neighbourhood Watch people should be used for this," he said.

"Our problem is that many of our members are elderly and can look after their own street but certainly not areas. I cannot see it would work because how can you only cover Ilkley with ten phones."