RESIDENTS of Clitheroe and Whalley were today celebrating a successful £572,000 bid for CCTV cameras.

Members of the Ribble Valley Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership met at the beginning of May to put together the final bid for the Home Office cash.

It is one of four schemes in the county to get a share of the £16million distributed in the North West.

Local firms will donate cash to pay for the running costs. The proposal is to upgrade and extend the existing system in Clitheroe and take it to Whalley.

The 20-camera system will replace the now outdated and poor quality six-camera scheme which was installed in Clitheroe in the mid-90s.

Both towns will be linked to a new control centre in Clitheroe, which will also monitor the new town centre radio scheme, pub watch scheme and local authority sheltered accommodation.

The scheme aims to address the problems of local crime which includes disorder from visitors who come from surrounding areas to visit the pubs and clubs.

Chief Executive of Ribble Valley Council David Morris has been appealing for CCTV system to be installed in Clitheroe and Whalley for the past 12 months and is "delighted" with the news.

He said: "It has been a team effort from the Ribble Valley Crime and Disorder Reduction team, police, Health Authority and Lancashire County Council. The hard work and endless consultations with each other and the public have finally paid off .

and now we look forward to spending our efforts on the training and running of the system. I was delighted like everybody else who has been involved in appealing for the system.

"We have a re-locatable camera which means that it can be set up in any area where there are particular troubles and it is monitored from a laptop computer. This will prove invaluable in our efforts to cut crime."

The higher than average elderly population accounts for a high perception and a fear of crime in the borough.

North West crime reduction director David Smith said: "I would like to pay tribute to the hard work put in by so many people in communities across the North West, working in partnership with the police, local authorities and the voluntary sector to improve the quality of people's lives and their safety."

The North West package is part of a £79million investment, the largest single government allocation of CCTV money to date.It will enable thousands of cameras to be installed and target residential crime hotspots, high street shopping centres, public transport networks, car parks, hospitals and tourist destinations.

So far Clitheroe and Whalley chambers of trade, publicans in Whalley, the Licensed Victuallers Association, Lancashire Constabulary and the three main supermarkets have promised to help fund the scheme for at least the next three years.

Mr Morris added: "We have already approached businesses in the area to help with running costs and had a good response. But we will again be appealing for help now that the cameras are to be installed."