A MAYOR has criticised a council report which recommends that costly CCTV cameras should not be reinstalled - because crime levels are too low.

It acknowledged that restoring the cameras to Richmond would benefit both residents and businesses but concluded that the set-up cost of £39,500 plus annual costs of £29,344 could not be justified.

The report, for Richmondshire District Council's Corporate Board, cites police figures showing that from 2011 to 2016, crime and anti-social behaviour levels remained relatively static.

Crimes not falling under the anti-social behaviour umbrella - such as robbery, violent crime and shoplifting - have reduced from 88 in 2011 to 19 in 2016.

The report said: "Having considered the crime and outcome figures for this area, it is difficult to identify a ‘pressing need’ for CCTV and it would appear that CCTV would may be a disproportionate response to the incidents reported."

However, Richmond's Mayor, Stuart Parsons, said the recommendation not to re-instate the cameras was "somewhat surprising and somewhat disappointing" given that their re-installation was part of a previous Conservative election promise.

"They say crime is low, but it is about people's perception of crime and it is more difficult for the police to arrest people - they are not necessarily recording all the crimes that people are reporting to them so I don't think the figures are realistic at all."

Richmond's cameras were decommissioned in March 2014 due to budget cuts.

A campaign was launched in May 2015 to bring the cameras back after lorry driver Andrew Jackson was attacked and killed near the town's Turf Hotel the previous month.

Mayor Parsons said that although the presence of CCTV cameras would not necessarily have had an impact on that incident, he says that in the current security risk climate it seems "very odd" not to have CCTV in a town next to a garrison.

He said: "They (the council) have got just under £3m of reserves so that £50,000 or so they are talking about is nothing out of all that tax payers money they have put to one side.

"They should be re-investing it in the community, not sitting on it for a rainy day."

In its conclusion, the council report notes that North Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner is undertaking a county-wide review of CCTV provision which the council is participating in will continue to do so whatever the outcome of the Corporate Board's discussion.

In addressing the financial implications of re-instating the cameras it adds: "The lack of affordable monitoring provision would pose a financial challenge disproportionate to the levels of crime reported in the town, so from a financial point of view the business case has not been made.

"In addition the Information Commissioner has stated that CCTV should not be deployed simply because one can, (ie if finances are available) but in response to an identified and pressing need and it is questionable whether that pressing need exists at this location."

The report will go before the council's Corporate Board on Tuesday.