British police will patrol Benidorm next year as part of a pioneering exchange agreement, authorities in the famous Costa Blanca resort have announced.

Government delegate Juan Carlos Moragues said he expected officers in the holiday hotspot from 'next summer or before.'

They are set to patrol alongside Spanish police or help man a foreign tourists' attention centre, known locally as a SATE.

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British police will help man the tourists' foreign attention centre in the party resort of Benidorm

He said: 'The idea is that when British holidaymakers sees a bobby in the SATE or patrolling the streets or the beach, they feel at home.

'Initially the number of officers will be small but afterwards their numbers will be increased.'

He also explained a formal agreement guaranteeing their presence in Benidorm had yet to be signed but the idea was that they would become a 'permanent' fixture in the city.

Moragues, the Spanish government's representative in the Valencian Community which includes the provinces of Castellon, Valencia and Alicante, made his surprise announcement during a visit to Benidorm's SATE.

He also revealed the agreement would be part of an exchange which would involve Spanish police travelling to Britain.

Two British police officers went out to Magaluf to help Spanish authorities deal with Britons

The two officers are seen here strolling along the quiet streets of the Spanish resort of Magaluf

He said: 'They will probably go to the areas with the highest numbers of Spaniards, but that is something the British police will decide on.'

The announcement follows a controversial pilot scheme which saw two British officers patrolling Majorca and Ibiza.

West Midlands Police pair Sgt Brett Williams and Pc Martina Anderson are due to leave the rowdy resort of San Antonio after doing a week in brash Magaluf in full uniform.

The experiment was criticised after it emerged they were only working days and not nights when most of the two resorts' problems occur.

One of the officers is seen shaking hands with one man as he walked through Magaluf

On Tuesday, they helped Spanish Civil Guard arrest a man who had allegedly assaulted his partner in broad daylight on a busy San Antonio street.

He is thought to have been released without charge after appearing in court when she refused to press charges.

Earlier in the week British tourists were ordered off Benidorm beach after a fish bit a 10-year-old boy on the hip.

Sunbathers fled the water in panic fearing a shark was on the loose - although local authorites at the time said they thought it was a barracuda.

Benidorm, that has an area called Little England and has a TV comedy of the same name starring Steve Pemberton and Siobhan Finneran, is popular with British holidaymakers

Benidorm - made even more famous by the hit ITV comedy series of the same name - has an area known as Little England.

British visitors to the resort outnumber every other nationality including the Spanish.

Benidorm account for five million of Spain's record 29.2 million visitors between January and June of this year.

The city's foreign tourists' attention centre dealt with 1,197 holidaymakers from abroad in the first six months of the year, including 881 Brits.

Neither the Spanish police set to travel to Britain - or the British police in Spain - are expected to have powers of arrest.

Authorities say they see their job as helping their compatriots - and dissuading them from breaking the rules with their presence.