CONCERNS about the impact of a new CCTV system in Caldicot on crime and disorder were addressed by councillors last week.

Caldicot Town Council considered a letter from Cllr Ron Stewart detailing local concerns about the system's design and the quality of the cameras' pictures.

Cllr Stewart said the town council was told the cameras would be encased in dome structures to conceal in which direction they were facing.

The CCTV cameras, which were installed six months ago and will cost more than £11,000 a year, should take film covering a greater area, say councillors and traders.

There were also serious concerns about the quality of pictures produced by the CCTV system at night after the recording of a break-in at a fast food outlet showed fuzzy images of the culprits.

Cllr Jim Higginson told the meeting that many of the concerns raised by Cllr Stewart were "old hat" and had already been addressed at an earlier meeting.

While there had been one incident in which fuzzy images were a problem, police were happy with the quality of the system, said Cllr Higginson.

He said: "Inspector Moses said the police sergeant who is responsible for CCTV had been to the control centre in Caerphilly and had seen the quality of the pictures. "He was quite happy with the quality of the recordings."

Cllr Dave Evans said Somerfield supermarket put its car park lights out at night and this had had an affect on the camera to the rear of the property. He asked for the clerk to contact the supermarket about the problem.

Cllr John Huntley told the meeting he had been the victim of a crime in Caldicot and the CCTV cameras did not pick up a clear image of the culprits.

He added: "We are spending £11,000 on this, so it is costing us £1,000 a month and I am not happy with it."

Cllr Kevin Bevan , who is a member of the CCTV committee, said an open invitation was issued last November for anyone who wanted to visit the police centre in Ystrad Mynach and see the CCTV pictures.

But Cllr Huntley said: "I have been there and what we have seen has been absolutely first class, but the quality of the system we have in place now is not the same as what we saw then."