Swadlincote town centre's old CCTV system is set to be replaced with a new £15,000 one after an increase in shoplifting.

The town's seven existing cameras have required an increased amount of repairs over the last 18 months. They were installed in 2010 at a cost of £43,000.

Now South Derbyshire District Council looks set to replace the old cameras with 11 new static CCTV ones. The cost of the new scheme, including installation and training, will be approximately £15,000.

The plan is to replace the existing seven cameras with 11 new ones based at the same locations.

The council’s housing and community services committee will discuss the proposal at a meeting at tonight, Wednesday, November 22, and, if approved, the money for the replacement scheme will come from the authority's Safer South Derbyshire Partnership cash reserves.

The committee will hear statistical evidence for continued CCTV coverage in the town centre, with a report saying: "It can be demonstrated by the fact that there were over twice as many crimes (424) reported in the Swadlincote Centre Local Super Output Area (LSOA) area during the 12 month period between October 2016 to September 2017 as there were in any other area of South Derbyshire, with the second highest number (178)."

Further evidence produced in the report for the need for CCTV said 'there was also an increase of crime in the Swadlincote centre ward of 17.1 per cent during the 12 month period between October 2016 and September 2017, much of which was shoplifting.'

A report to the committee said: "Swadlincote’s existing seven-camera public CCTV system has over the past 18 months required an increasing amount of attention in terms of repairs and replacement of parts. At nearly eight years old, a decision has been made that it will be more cost effective and beneficial to the police to replace the existing cameras rather than continuing to pay to have the old ones repaired."

At the moment its costs £1,600 to maintain the cameras each year, plus the occasional call out for repairs which has until this year totalled no more than a few hundred pounds per year.

CCTV cameras are set to be replaced in Swadlincote town centre

The report added: "With the system approaching eight years old the cameras are beginning to show signs of wear and tear and that they need replacing.

"Over the past 18 months repair costs have increased significantly; between March 2016 and January 2017, £1,005 was spent on call out charges and repairs to the cameras. Between January and March 2017 four cameras developed faults which needed repairing and after being quoted close to £4,500 to repair these four cameras and discussing it with the engineers it became apparent that a more cost effective way forward would be to replace the existing cameras with new ones."

The current position of the cameras are:

• Swadlincote Library

• Post Office.

• West Street

• Dean and Smedley

• William Hill

• Civic Way

• Rink Passage

After consultation with the police and through speaking to three CCTV suppliers it was agreed that the current cameras should be replaced by new static cameras.

The report said: "Although the PTZ [current] cameras offer a total coverage of the area the 'tours' that they are set on means that on occasions incidents are missed due to the cameras panning round.

"It was agreed replacing the existing PTZ cameras with two wide angled lens cameras at each location would give as good coverage, would be less likely to miss an incident and would also be a cheaper option than the more expensive PTZ cameras."

CCTV cameras will cost £15,000 if they are installed

The infrastructure of the existing wireless scheme will be maintained, however the council has been advised to replace all of the existing wireless radio receivers, as well as the cameras and the recorder.

Sergeant Graham Summers, the South Derbyshire Safer Neighbourhood Police sergeant, is backing the move to replace the cameras saying they helped the police fight crime. He said in the report: "A lack of a fit-for-purpose CCTV system in the Swadlincote town centre would have an impact on the police’s ability to deal with matters of antisocial behaviour and crime.

"The last two years (with antisocial behaviour and shoplifting increases) have presented challenges in the town centre and the ability to be able to recognise offenders (using CCTV) has proved very useful.

"CCTV enables the police to prove who the perpetrators are, to what extent antisocial behaviour has occurred and which 'shoplifters' are moving around the town and when. Quality of evidence from witnesses (who often do not see themselves as such) can be ‘shaky’ and as a consequence without CCTV we may miss the opportunity to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour and bring offenders to justice.

"The town centre hosts much which requires monitoring (or retrospectively needs evidencing) bearing in mind the number of shops including pubs and banks which can easily be the focus of serious crime as we have seen.

"A quality upgrade to the existing CCTV system would be welcomed by the local police and provide reassurance to the local businesses and the community who frequent Swadlincote."