CCTV in Colchester town centre could be completely revamped because the current system has no capacity to add new cameras.

Safer Colchester Partnership chairman Pam Donnelly said preliminary discussions were ongoing to introduce new CCTV after being asked whether cameras could be place in the town’s historic Dutch Quarter because the current arrangements do not allow for any new cameras to be put in fresh locations.

She said: “At the moment it is impossible to add any additional functionality whatsoever.

“We are working with the council’s commercial arm to look at the costs of a really good, state-of-the-art CCTV system which will add additional functionality.

“We have not yet got as far as how that would be funded at a local level.

“But a review of that system is underway and a commercial tendering process would be the next step to see what the best deal is out there to add capacity to the system.

“We are fortunate to have a good cabling system the issue is the capacity of that system to take on any new cameras and the automatic reporting we would want to see.

“Cameras which produce a film aren’t that effective and break down very easily.”

She said the most effective way of using CCTV would be to have them linked so footage can be seen instantly at the central centre in real time.