A VILLAGE'S CCTV system has been rendered useless after one of the cameras was placed next to a tree.

Now a plan to fell the 100-year-old tree has been put on hold after it emerged it could be home to a colony of endangered bats.

A second security camera, designed to monitor crime in Delves Lane, near Consett, County Durham, has also been rendered inoperable - because it cannot receive a relay signal from the first.

If experts confirm the presence of bats, the council will be unable to cut down the tree and will have to uproot the cameras instead.

Tony Westgarth, chairman of Delves Lane Community Association, said: "This system has been a total waste of our money.

"Whether there are bats or not does not explain why they put a camera next to a tree in the first place."

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

The camera obstructed by the tree is outside Delves Lane School and the second is in nearby Briardale. The only operational unit in the village is in Old Hall Road.

Mr Westgarth said: "It is completely crazy. All they had to do to avoid this was put the camera up a few yards down the road."

Durham County Council initially agreed to cut the tree down but, just as workers were about to move in, villagers warned the authority that bats used the tree.

An independent expert's initial report was inconclusive, and she is to carry out further tests.

District council leader Alex Watson said: "The county assured us the tree would come down three months ago. We are pushing for swift action but its hands are tied because of the bats."

A spokesman for Durham County Council said: "There are severe legal restrictions on what can be done to an active bat roost."