With three councillors absent from Monday's Monmouth Town Council Extra meeting (3rd December) to set the budget and consider re-entry into the CCTV partnership, it was anyone's guess as to which way the vote would swing.

With councillors Dewhurst, Fletcher and Jones not there, the fine balance of feeling about the Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) scheme was certainly wavering one way.

The debate on whether a joint scheme with three other towns would have any positive effect on crime figures in Monmouth had raged on for years, ever since the town withdrew from the last scheme when the cameras were switched off in 2008 and left dead and empty over the streets of Monmouth.

The following year, a petition of more than 1,000 signatures urged the council to switch the cameras back on, but with costs building up to merely plug back into the original system, and fears the surveillance was never a good enough quality to convict, Monmouth Town Council (MTC) decided late in 2011 not to fund the scheme.

Step in Monmouth and District Chamber of Commerce, who initiated a new study into options in early 2012.

Led by CCTV champion Brain Ramsey, the chamber put forward three options, two requiring private funding and a third envisaging that the town council would rejoin the Monmouthshire CCTV partnership, which had moved on with new technology.

The threat of an £8,000 re-connection fee to pay to BT passed into history as the new cameras would use a radio link.

The motion put before council on Monday had already shown the balance for and against to be equally split when the Finance and Policy Committee had to rely upon the casting vote by chairman Bob Hayward to get the motion put before a full town council meeting.

With 14 members of the public watching the vote, the motion that the council should re-enter the CCTV partnership with Abergavenny, Chepstow and Caldicot was put to the table. Those in favour raised their hands and the motion was passed by a majority of just one.

Who knows whether the three absent councillors wold have changed their minds, or would have turned the motion down.

Monmouth is back on the CCTV agenda, with councillors reviewing the position on the success – or failure of – a venture which at least a thousand people thought was a good idea three years ago.

Chairman of Monmouth and District Chamber of Commerce Brian Ramsey said: "For several years the chamber has lobbied for the return of CCTV in the town.

"We have always maintained that CCTV is vital for community safety, which encompasses everybody – residents, visitors and business owners alike.

"We welcome this decision by the town council, along with the news that they have voted to increase their budget quite significantly; both decisions will hopefully lead to the provision of better services for the people of Monmouth."

County councillor Phil Hobson, MCC's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member with responsibility for Community Safety, said: "I'm really pleased that Monmouth Town Council has voted to re-join MCC's CCTV partnership.

"The huge improvements and reduced costs to the system that we've recently announced certainly make it a far more attractive proposition.

"But you can't put too high a value on the community safety and public confidence that CCTV brings to communities, so I'm sure the people of Monmouth will join me in applauding the town council's decision. I look forward to a long and fruitful renewed partnership with Monmouth Town Council."