MORE than �10,000 will be spent by Saffron Walden Town Council on installing CCTV cameras at the Shire Hill industrial estate. It is hoped that the cameras will put an end to the spate of fuel thefts from a depot on the industrial estate owned by Uttlesfo

MORE than �10,000 will be spent by Saffron Walden Town Council on installing CCTV cameras at the Shire Hill industrial estate.

It is hoped that the cameras will put an end to the spate of fuel thefts from a depot on the industrial estate owned by Uttlesford District Council (UDC).

In the latest raid last month, more than �6000 worth of diesel - which would have been used for refuelling refuse trucks - was stolen from a storage tank. Thieves had broken a padlock to enter the site and used an electric pump to remove the 6500 litres of fuel.

Despite the number of theft's from the district council-owned site it is the town council that is forking out for the cost of the CCTV.

At a meeting of Saffron Walden Town Council last Wednesday, Cllr Keith Eden said: "All the CCTV will give us is a picture of the criminals - why can't UDC lock its property up?"

Leader of UDC, Cllr Jim Ketteridge, said the cameras were not being installed specifically to prevent crime on the district council's depot, but he added that he "hoped that it would".

"There have been a number of problems at the Shire Hill industrial estate over a period of time," he said.

"The CCTV gives us some way of recording who is accessing that road at that time of night. It will act as a considerable deterrent to thieves."

The cameras will be installed on a pole at the junction of Shire Hill and Thaxted Road. Town Clerk Malcolm White informed the council that ground work would begin this week and the cameras would be ready by the end of August.