Spy TV cameras are good value

Members of Ferryhill Town Council requested statistics to assess the effectiveness of the town's closed-circuit television camera network.

Councillors are often questioned about the value of having cameras in the town and doubts have been raised about their effectiveness.

The council's executive officer, Jamie Corrigan, said: "It is a major talking point in Ferryhill. We did ask for reports on the performance of the cameras because we pay for the upkeep of them. In total, they cost the town council in the range of £15,000 a year to maintain."

There are seven cameras in the system - four in Dean Bank Park, one in the market place, another near the Black Bull pub in the town centre and the newest at the King George V playing field.

Statistics discussed at a council meeting this week showed that the cameras captured 193 incidents of anti-social behaviour in the year to April.

In addition, there were 34 examples of criminal behaviour caught on tape and a further 107 "incidents of note".

Mr Corrigan said: "The figures are impressive and the members were particularly pleased to hear about one incident which was relayed to them.

"Someone was convicted in court recently for a burglary at Ferryhill and they were actually seen carrying the stolen property through Dean Bank Park."

A Sedgefield Borough Council spokesman said the cameras were proving a useful deterrent, and not just in Ferryhill.

He said: "CCTV picks up incidents that could easily go undetected, and there is a deterrent side to the cameras in that it gives people confidence to walk the street knowing they are being recorded.

"CCTV cameras help make Ferryhill, and Sedgefield borough as a whole, a safer place in which to live and work."

The spokesman said one of the most frequent complaints was that cameras appeared to be static, but that was not always the case.

He said: "Every camera movement is recorded, and in one recent four-hour check one of our cameras had 1,784 movements, all of which were recorded.