CHORLEY Police and the local council are teaming up to launch a second bid for CCTV in the district's villages.

At a meeting of Chorley Borough Council's commercial development and property sub-committee, held last night (Wednesday), a new plan for a mobile CCTV unit was outlined by Sergeant Paul Fairhurst.

The new cameras would be used to target certain trouble spots, as determined by the police and residents. They would be linked to a nearby van, which would send information to the police station.

Sgt Fairhurst said: "Unlike our last bid for cameras in places like Coppull, Clayton-le-Woods and Adlington, which proposed the introduction of static cameras in the villages, this bid has never been tried before and hopefully it will work.

"The cameras could be located at so-called crime hot-spots in the borough and would be very helpful at pre-planned events, such as Adlington Carnival or the Royal Lancashire Show."

Sgt Fairhurst added he believe the second bid would appeal more to the Home Office, which would need to give support if the system was to get off the ground.

He added: "The Home Office now believes that static CCTV can be funded by local government. They are now more attracted to proposals which are new, and don't cost quite as much.

"But the scheme will be a joint venture involving the police, the Home Office, Chorley Council and the local communities involved."

Alun Michael, minister of state for the Home Office, said: "We are trying to encourage innovation, imagination and lateral thinking in the application of CCTV to tackle crime, disorder and uncivil behaviour faced by communities every day.

"CCTV needs to be intergrated with other crime reduction measures."

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