A crime-combating initiative is to be set up on the Yorkshire Coast next month with the start of a 24-hour security camera monitoring system.

Scarborough Borough Council is taking over the closed-circuit television system (CCTV) from the police, running it the from its new offices in King Street.

The authority will monitor 41 cameras in Scarborough, Filey and Whitby and staff at King Street will have a direct radio link with the police, said Bruce Bedford, the council's traffic and transportation manager.

"It means we shall be able to speak directly to an officer on the beat."

Mr Bedford said council staff were being trained to monitor the system, which will from now on be carried out around the clock, he said.

"It has cost £250,000 to put up a new building and the cost of installing equipment," said Mr Bedford.

A police spokesman said the Scarborough control room had been switched to the county police headquarters at Northallerton, which meant the cameras could not be watched 24 hours a day.

Mr Bedford said the new control room will also become the base for the council's housing warden alarm scheme, which is used by 3,000 people and is currently based in a former bungalow at Sandybed.

The new King Street offices, converted from a complex of derelict listed buildings at the rear of the Town Hall, are due to be officially opened by the Duke of York on Friday, October 17.