You won't have noticed but there was a big switch-on in Monmouth last week.

There was no fanfare and no crowds were gathered, but the town's streets are now being captured on CCTV for the first time in five years.

Town councillors voted earlier this year to rejoin a county-wide scheme run by Monmouthshire council and operated from its SRS control room in Blaenavon.

New dome-shaped cameras have replaced the old 'shoebox' models and use line-of-sight radio link technology to feed data from around Monmouth to a hub at the Shire Hall.

"The picture quality is really good and it is such a flexible system," said Andy Mason, Monmouthshire's CCTV officer.

"We have a solid structure to begin with and the ability to add additional cameras or move them as and when.

"There are obviously costs involved in that but before it was impossible – now it is possible."

Monmouth Town Council will get monthly progress reports while you can keep up-to-date with CCTV updates in the Beacon.

Phil Hobson, chairman of Monmouthshire County Council's CCTV group, said Monmouth Mayor Gerry Bright had been instrumental in the return of CCTV to the town.

"Without him, Monmouth would not have got it back," said Councillor Hobson.

"There is a debt of gratitude to him from me personally.

"The new system will not only work as a deterrent but will be used to help catch perpetrators."

The Mayor, Cllr Bright, said: "The main thing is that it is a detterent. Criminals look at towns and if they see one without CCTV, they target it.

"The cost also influenced me – it is a tiny amount per household. £18,000 sounds like a lot of money but each household is paying the price of a couple of packets of fags.

"More than 1,200 people signed a petition asking for CCTV and there was no big number shouting against it."

CSO Dan Osgood, who helps run the Monmouth Business Against Crime partnership, said the cameras will help the police catch criminals and will complement the Storenet system used by a number of shops in the high street.