Town Council representatives have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) on the installation of a new, more flexible and cheaper CCTV system.

MCC's cabinet agreed late last year to introduce a radical improvement to CCTV provision in the county's four main towns of Abergavenny, Chepstow, Caldicot and Monmouth.

The new system uses wireless technology, which provides greater flexibility, with the ability to add a camera to deal with a new hotspot location by linking in by line of sight or by use of a relay system onto the circuit.

By contrast, the current system is limited to six cameras per town in fixed locations. The wireless signal will be sent to the comprehensive schools in each town (the One Stop Shop in Caldicot) and from there will go onto the MCC Network 1GB link to SRS Control Room in Blaenavon.

The £85,000 modernisation of the system is funded on an 'Invest to Save' arrangement.

The money was taken from reserves and repaid within four years from the cost savings that the new system would bring.

The overall cost saving to the authority would be £25,000 a year, after year four when the original investment has been repaid.

A number of lamp posts in each town will have to have power sockets installed to run the new system. This will cost around £5,000, and would be met from existing CCTV budget.

This additional power consumption is negligible and would be met by existing Street Lighting budget.

Cllr Phil Hobson, the cabinet member with responsibility for community safety, said: "This new CCTV system is great news for the residents of our four main towns.

"It's flexible, affordable and will be a major tool for crime prevention and detection. I'm really pleased that the four town councils are on board and am delighted at the sealing of our partnership with the signing of the memorandum of understanding."