Traders in Bingley have welcomed two new interactive cameras amid fears that vandalism is rising in the town.

Bradford Council is putting up CCTV cameras in Main Street - one outside the arts centre and another by the car park near the Queens pub.

They will be manned 24 hours a day and will include helpline buttons allowing people to talk directly to staff in the Bradford control room, which has links with the emergency services.

And shopkeepers said the cameras could be the key to detering vandals.

Last week the Telegraph & Argus reported how traders were calling for tighter security after seven shopfronts were smashed in one weekend.

Nick Jones, manager of Travel Options which has been targeted, said: "I'm very pleased and I hope this could be the end to all our problems."

The Scope charity shop was also hit and assistant manager Angela Cutting said more cameras was what the town needed.

"There is more and more vandalism happening every weekend and hopefully the cameras will put the vandals off, and if not they'll be caught on film," she said.

The cameras will be installed by the end of March as part of the Council's Crime and Disorder partnership.

The camera outside the Arts Centre, which costs £8,000, will be linked to the Council's information shop in Main Street to provide visitors with details about the town.

Town centre manager David Dinsey said: "The intention has always been to make Bingley a safe place for those who work, visit, shop and take their leisure in the town and the proposed extension of the existing CCTV system and the provision of emergency help boxes will further maintain this feeling of well-being."

The helpline is funded as part of the Government's £1.3 million cash injection into CCTV across the district.

The second camera is being moved from the Midland Hill car park.