CCTV cameras in Colne town centre are so old that police cannot identify criminals from them.

Sgt John Fryer told members of Pendle Council's Colne and District committee that a number of cameras only recorded grainy, black and white footage at night.

But council bosses insisted the poor images were caused by bad lighting and the £170,000 being spent on the central precinct would improve lighting in the area.

Sgt Fryer said Colne had been one of the first town centres to use cameras, and that they were out of date compared to those in other areas of Pendle.

A month ago, he said, a burglar who broke into a mobile phone store in Market Street had been picked up by the cameras, but could not be identified because the footage was of such poor quality.

He said: "Some cameras in Colne are very old and desperately need replacing. Some only record in black and white.

"After the break-in at the mobile phone shop, we could see him going to and from it, but we couldn't identify him and it is very frustrating.

"The new ones are really good, in colour with sharp images, but the ones in the town centre were among the first to be installed.

"In general terms, CCTV is a good deterrent and of use to us but we do wish we could have some newer ones put in."

CCTV cameras were installed in Colne in 2003, two years after those in Nelson, and they are due to be reviewed in 2008.

Denying the age of the cameras contributed to the poor images problems Coun Sharon Davies said: "The problem is to do with the lighting and not the age of the cameras.

"We are doing up all the precinct at a cost of £170,000 and as part of that we will have new lighting going underneath the canopies.

"This will help a lot because the lighting is a big problem around that area."

Peter Stobbs, CCTV manager for Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, said the bad images were caused by a lack of lighting.

He said: "We switch the camera's to monochrome in low light because it picks up better images at night.

"It takes longer for the picture to blow up at night so you get motion blur.

"It's not about the age of the cameras but more about the lighting and the enviro-nmental conditions.

"The thing they need to do is to improve the lighting around the camera."