Silsden will have CCTV cover by the end of this month.

District councillor Andrew Mallinson, pictured, told Silsden Town Council that three new high-tech cameras had been acquired and Silsden was the first on the list to benefit from them. The machines will be fitted to lamp-posts running along Kirkgate and will be in use for three months. After that he said the results would be collated and it would be considered whether the town would benefit from them becoming a more permanent fixture.

The cameras, which cost £10,000, have the ability to rotate, zoom and focus on a desired subject.

Captured images will be sent straight to a control centre in Bradford, where officers will contact police as and when crimes are committed. Images can be used in court as evidence.

Silsden Business Watch has been campaigning for security cameras since 2001 in a bid to cut vandalism and anti-social behaviour. The group has raised money through its annual Christmas Extravaganza, and after its first Easter Extravaganza, in March, it was revealed they had £5,000 in the pot.

The cameras should have been fitted last year when the project secured a grant from Bradford Council, but plans stalled after problems were encountered with beaming the images from Silsden to the control centre in Bradford.

Now, with the images being beamed via a node on the top of Leyland House, in Keighley, Cllr Mallinson said the cameras would definitely be in place by the end of the month.

Parish councillor Chris Atkinson said Cllr Mallinson deserved applauding, he said.

Cllr Liz Trainor agreed. "It's nice to finally see Silsden getting some visible support rather than just verbal support," she said.