Flexible, high quality and cheaper CCTV could be on its way to Abergavenny after Monmouthshire County Council's Cabinet gave the go-ahead to a radical improvement to Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) provision in the county's four main towns.

The new system will use wireless technology, which would allow town CCTV systems to be far more flexible and responsive to local issues.

Wireless CCTV provides greater flexibility for our towns, with the ability to add a camera to deal with a new hotspot location by linking in by line of sight or by use of a relay system onto the circuit.

By contrast, the current system is limited to six cameras per town in fixed locations.

The wireless signal would be sent to the Comprehensive Schools in each town (except Caldicot where it will be the One Stop Shop) and from there will go onto the MCC Network 1GB link to SRS Control Room in Blaenavon.

The £85K modernisation of the system would be funded on an 'Invest to Save' arrangement.

The money would be taken from reserves and repaid within four years from the cost savings that the new system would bring.

The overall cost saving to the authority would be £25K a year, after year four when the original investment has been repaid.

A number of lamp posts in each town will have to have power sockets installed to run the new system.

This will cost around £5K, and would be met from existing CCTV budget.

This additional power consumption is negligible and would be met by existing Street Lighting budget.

Councillor Phil Hobson, Monmouthshire County Council's Cabinet Member for Community Development, said:

"This proposal represents a major step forward for our communities. CCTV has a range of benefits that go beyond crime prevention and detection. The better quality of this system, its huge flexibility and cost benefits will benefit the people of Monmouthshire for years to come."

He added,"I hope that these improvements will encourage Monmouth Town Council to once again make the town part of the county's CCTV network."