THE vision of a village's security camera system blinded by bats after it was put next to a tree with a suspected roost has been restored.

Workers yesterday cut the tree down after experts established there were no bats in its branches.

Plans to fell the 100-year-old tree in Delves Lane, near Consett, County Durham, had been put on hold after it emerged it could have been home to a colony of endangered bats.

A second security camera designed to monitor crime had also been rendered inoperable because it could not relay a signal from the first.

The system was installed this year as part of Derwentside District Council's pledge to put three cameras in each of its wards.

There are severe restrictions on what can be done to an active bat roost.

Experts mounted a round-the-clock surveillance to establish that no bats lived in the tree, outside Delves Lane School.

Resident Thomas Smith, who welcomed the tree felling, said "Every time the trees brushed against our electricity wires, it knocked off our electricity.

"I believe a couple of people did not want the tree coming down and thought one way of stopping it was to say it contained bats."