THE number of security cameras in York could increase as the service to monitor them goes under the control of council staff.

At the moment there are 50 cameras, 24 monitoring car parks, nine directed on traffic and 17 for community safety.

The total looks set to be increased to 64.

The current monitoring duties are split between North Yorkshire Police and City of York Council highways teams, with separate monitoring stations at Fulford Road police station and two in council offices at St Leonard's Place.

Under the new proposals council staff will monitor all the city's CCTV cameras from a new facility at police headquarters in Fulford Road. This comes after a review of operations by the police concluded that officers will no longer be able to actively monitor cameras and instead rely on recordings of any incidents.

The council has pledged that the new service will mean tighter surveillance from 9am to 7pm, with the police taking over the night duties.

And the council staff could eventually be monitoring it 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Peter Evely, the council's head of highways regulation, said: "We are seeing this as an opportunity to develop a central, dedicated facility which will offer round-the-clock monitoring of the city's CCTV system for the benefit of everyone."

The proposal is to be considered next by Councillor Bob Scrase, the council's executive member for community safety and local affairs.

Coun Scrase said: "This represents an opportunity for us to help to consolidate the city's CCTV network and offer the police full support when it comes to moni-toring the city's cameras.

"It provide a significant improvement in overall public safety."

Insp Colin Bowes added: "The police have such a huge number of duties that at the moment the amount of time that they are able to devote to monitoring the cameras is relatively small."

Updated: 09:42 Tuesday, September 18, 2001