Fed-up residents are pushing for CCTV to slash rising crime in three villages.

But camera coverage may not be the answer to crime problems in Birstall, Birkenshaw and East Bierley, according to Kirklees Council.

Chris Platts, who manages the delivery of CCTV for Kirklees Council, told the Birstall and Birkenshaw's Area Committee meeting: "CCTV will not stop anybody doing anything - all it will do is take pictures. It is also an expensive solution - if you put a CCTV camera up and hook it to the main system, it costs from £20,000 to £25,000. It then costs between £4,000 and £4,500 to keep it there."

Mr Platts said a neighbourhood warden scheme being piloted in Huddersfield could be phased in.

Committee chairman Councillor Andrew Palfreeman (Con, Birstall and Birkenshaw) said: "Latest figures show that recorded crime in this ward is higher than both the Kirklees average and the national average and that crime rates for criminal damage, theft from vehicles and burglary are higher in this ward that anywhere else in Kirklees."

Austin Calvert, of Birstall Village Improvement Group, said: "Every weekend in Birstall we get a shop window put through. Shop keepers are now going for shuttering which costs them money and makes the village look like Beirut."

Councillor Robert Light (Con,Birstall and Birkenshaw) added: "The need for CCTV has come from desperate feelings - the reality is that we're not going to get the level of policing we had back in the late 80s."

Mr Platts urged the committee to formulate a crime pattern analysis and discuss problems with police.

"From that, you can draw a realistic view as to what the answers to those problems are," he said. "If CCTV is still one of those answers, we can look at how to take funding forward."

The owner of a Birstall newsagents said crime and vandalism in the town was the worst she had known it.

"It is a nightmare," she said. "We are lucky if we get a night's sleep on a weekend, with windows going through and fireworks being let off. We never see any police.

"Everywhere you look, windows are boarded up," she continued. "CCTV cameras would be up on posts where they could not be reached and the drunks wouldn't even remember they were there. If it deters them it will be an improvement and we would be willing to chip in to pay for them."

Bob Barclay, owner of Natural Choice greengrocers in Birkenshaw, said: "We have a problem with druggies hanging about and that puts people off coming to Birkenshaw. If they are about, the elderly especially will stay away. I would back CCTV in Birkenshaw because it could help sort out the drug problem."

A worker from Akeroyd's Florists in Market Street, Birstall, said: "We would definitely back CCTV because it would catch people in the act. There are at least three shop windows a week broken in Birstall. CCTV would identify them without a doubt. "