ALMOST £400,000 extra will be spent on upgrading the city's outdated CCTV cameras, after councillors backed plans.

Most of the council-owned CCTV cameras across the city are almost a decade old and becoming outdated and the wire using to transfer images is equally old.

At a meeting of the city council's planning and resources committee on Tuesday (December 11), councillors agreed to spend an extra £398,000 on modernising the fleet of cameras.

Councillor Simon Geraghty said it was a "really welcome" investment which would show that Worcester was a safe place to live and work.

He said: "I think Worcester was ahead of its time in terms of investing in such a comprehensive network years ago but clearly in terms of maintaining that and upgrading it, it's really important that we put this extra resource in.

"We know the tragic events that happened earlier this year that highlighted some of the issues in the CCTV network which were more extensive than was appreciated by the members of the council.

"Seeing this investment will reassure people that our hard-won reputation as one of the safest cities in the country is not taken for granted."

The city council's CCTV system is made up of a number of different cameras with varying quality carrying images through an assortment of cables. As the cables are between 15 and 20-years-old they can only carry outdated analogue pictures.

Cllr Joy Squires said: "I think there are some positive equality implications in this report and I think we should be saying so.

"People will feel safer, women will feel safer, others who feel vulnerable for whatever reason will feel safer if we have got a good, fully-functioning network of CCTV cameras.

Currently, footage from the city's 66 street cameras is fed to Worcester police station in Castle Street. The information is then sent to a control room and monitored 24 hours a day at Wychavon District Council in Pershore.

The total cost of upgrading the cameras is expected to be almost £550,000 as a minimum - with £100,000 already being spent from the council's City Plan fund.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion also pledged £25,000 a year for the next two years to help the council upgrade its CCTV cameras.

In October, the Worcester News revealed a CCTV camera overlooking Sabrina Bridge had not been working for around 12 months.

The bridge was one of the last known whereabouts of student Tom Jones, 18, who was found dead in the River Severn at the end of September.

Discussions between the council and the University of Worcester over sharing cameras - and some of the cost - are ongoing.