CRIME-busting closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) are to be set up at Ilkley bus station by the end of March, it has been announced.

The public safety initiative is part of s £1.63 million plan to provide greater security in the region's transport centres.

Tomorrow's meeting of the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Consultative Committee in Bradford will be told that the first phase of the plan, which includes CCTV for Ilkley, is progressing well.

The cameras will be centrally monitored at Metro headquarters at Wellington House in Leeds, which will be manned 24 hours a day.

There will be video recording and security staff will have hotline links to local security staff and the police.

Geoffrey Vere, chairman of the Wharfe Valley Neighbourhood Watch Association, said: "I welcome the possibility that units of CCTV cameras may be installed in this area. Our association has campaigned for some time for cameras to be located in strategic positions and we believe the evidence of their success in fighting crime in other areas can be repeated here."

Parish council chairman Kate Brown said: "I think it is very good news. I would have thought that it was a great deterrent - if people know they are going to be watched.

I have heard from other areas such as Bingley and Shipley that crime moves away when cameras are installed. We would like to see more in Ilkley.

Both Coun Brown and parish and district councillor Anne Hawkesworth also want to see CCTV cameras installed in the central car park in Ilkley.

Coun Hawkesworth said: "I think it is great but I am not sure the bus station is the area where I would have recommended. I would have recommended the car park which is where the problems really lie.

"It is welcome in certain areas but I have concerns about it intruding into people's lives during the day when people are shopping. It is proper that Ilkley should have them."

The news comes on back of an announcement by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, that Bradford will be getting a handout of nearly £1 million pounds for CCTV cameras to provide a comprehensive security blanket over the city centre.

It is now estimated that there are around half-a-million CCTV cameras installed nationally, raising fears from civil liberties groups about the arrival of the 'Big Brother' state.

There have also been criticisms that the presence of cameras does not stamp out crime but simply moves it to other areas.

Couns Brown and Hawkesworth said they would continue to press for other areas of Ilkley to be covered in the fight against crime and rowdyism in the area.

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