THE NUMBER of hours that CCTV is monitored in the town is set to be extended.

CCTV monitoring in Penarth will increase from 111 hours a week to 125 hours a week after the Vale council cabinet agreed to the proposal on Monday (July 3).

Since April 2016, monitoring of CCTV cameras across the both the Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend has been undertaken by Bridgend County Borough Council as part of a partnership agreement.

There are 77 cameras across the Vale of Glamorgan, each of which records for the full 24 hours of each day.

The cameras can be controlled remotely and are monitored by staff at the Bridgend control centre 365 days a year.

The Vale of Glamorgan Council has now decided to increase the number of hours in which the cameras covering Penarth as well as Barry and Llantwit Major are actively monitored and put in place new maintenance arrangements to ensure any faults to key cameras are repaired within four hours of being reported.

The total annual cost for the CCTV provision is £70,000.

The current budget available is £64,000 with the additional £6,000 to be funded by existing revenue budgets

Cllr Andrew Parker, cabinet member for housing and building services, said: "The Vale’s town centres sit at the heart of our communities and we want to make sure all residents and visitors feel safe when visiting them.

"CCTV is one of the key tools we have at our disposal to achieve this and the enhanced monitoring arrangements agreed by cabinet will ensure that we are using the technology as effectively as possible.

"Monthly performance reports will be reviewed by our community safety team so that we can be certain the correct areas are being targeted."

Changes to monitoring arrangements will come into place immediately.