A PILOT scheme which uses a closed circuit television system linked to mobile telephone technology is to continue in the North-East following successful trials.

Northumbria Police, which started trials on fixed point CCTV cameras ten years ago, has been given the go-ahead by the Home Office to continue testing the scheme for another year.

The system is suited to rural areas, transmitting video images over digital mobile phone networks. It uses a camera containing a hard drive and a mobile phone linked to another phone at the monitoring base.

This is connected to a lap top computer, which can be moved anywhere in the area command.

In the usual fixed point cameras, the image is passed down a fibre optic link from the camera to the monitoring point.

Chief Inspector John Thompson said: "The cost of fibre optic links from villages to the nearest point of access makes them prohibitively expensive.

"This system puts the concept of CCTV within the grasp of rural communities, being both cheap and effective."

He said that, while the cameras had not resulted directly in any arrests, they had reduced the fear of crime in rural communities.