PLANS to analyse York’s network of CCTV cameras to see if they are helping to tackle crime have been dropped.

Councillors had suggested looking at the effectiveness and value-for-money of the scheme as well as finding out whether the city’s residents saw it as a reassurance or an invasion of their privacy.

But City of York Council has now decided not to launch its own review because of the possibility of CCTV services in different parts of North Yorkshire being shared among local authorities in a bid to make “significant efficiency savings”.

Consultants brought in by the Local Government North Yorkshire and York Board, which looks at how councils can team up to provide services, have compiled a report which recommended authorities in the region consider sharing equipment, repair and maintenance costs.

The findings said this could mean a combined saving of £103,000 for all the councils involved by 2016/17.

York and North Yorkshire’s CCTV network has 305 cameras and costs £1.2 million a year to run, but the report by consultancy firm Jacobs said councils had indicated “a low level of appetite for sharing” because their individual areas had “different needs”.

The firm had also suggested a single CCTV service covering York, Selby, Hambleton and Harrogate could be considered and would potentially save the councils involved £391,000 over the next five years, with Scarborough, Ryedale and Richmondshire keeping their existing arrangements. Another option put forward by Jacobs was for larger authorities, such as York, to provide a CCTV service for their smaller neighbours through a contract arrangement.

A review of CCTV in York was originally suggested in January 2010 by Denise Bowgett, a Holgate councillor at the time, and the issue was subsequently also taken up by then-Wheldrake councillor Christian Vassie and Coun James Alexander.

However, members of the scrutiny committee said it was “not an appropriate time” for a study to be carried out.

The calls for York’s CCTV system to come under scrutiny intensified last year when former control room worker Wayne Garbutt told The Press the facility regularly went unmanned for long periods and screens were switched off, as well as claiming staff were not properly monitoring coverage.