A SCHEME to place 'spy-in-the-sky' CCTV cameras in Nelson and Brierfield was controversially blocked after a council row.

Accusations of parochialism, dishonesty and bully-boy tactics filled the council chamber at Nelson Town Hall as councillors again came head-to-head over the matter.

Labour and Tory attempts to push through a council bid for Home Office funding to pay for the schemes were defeated by the ruling Liberals as tempers flared. The bid has to be in by November 20.

Coun Tony Greaves, who branded both moves as 'dishonest,' said: "People are passing the buck to an authority which has no responsibility for this work whatsoever. It's not our job to keep the streets free of crime. There are other authorities to do that." Labour councillor Roger Abbiss, who had several heated exchanges with Coun Greaves, called the remarks 'scandalous.'

The Liberals argued that they would not make a bid unless the money could be found from somewhere to fund the council's share of setting up and running the schemes. Taking money from the council budget would mean cuts in other services. "It's the real, rotten world of hard priorities," added Coun Greaves.

But Labour group leader Coun Carol Hopkins, said the Liberals were acting out of sheer stubbornness in refusing to listen to public support for the cameras from people in Nelson and Brierfield. Earlier a petition of 1,260 names signed by Brierfield residents was handed in in support of the anti-crime cameras.

Public meetings on the scheme are to be held in Nelson Town Hall on Tuesday and in Brierfield on November 14.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.