THE successful closed-circuit television (CCTV) system in Darlington is set to be extended to other areas of the town, thanks to a Home Office grant.

From next month, 12 new screens will be operational in the CCTV control room in Darlington Town Hall.

The screens will ensure footage from each of the 97 cameras in the town can be viewed more frequently and will make it easier for new cameras to be installed.

The 12 new screens are being installed at a cost of £20,000 which was given to Darlington Borough Council by the Home Office.

From next month, there will be 33 screens operational in the control room which are monitored around-the-clock by at least two control room staff who look for any suspicious or criminal activity.

As well as watching images from the CCTV cameras, the control room staff have close links with groups including Crimenet and Pubwatch, to try to co-ordinate the fight against crime.

The CCTV system was first introduced in Darlington in 1994 and since then £1.5m has been invested in the scheme.

Stephen Harker, the council's cabinet member for community safety, said: "The CCTV cameras have achieved a consistently high level of success since the system was first introduced.

"The extra cameras and screens will mean that more areas of the town can be monitored effectively and the security of our CCTV sys- tem can be extended still further."

The cameras have made a huge impact to crime figures in the town with more than 3,000 arrests being made as a direct result of the system.

Crime in car parks around the town has been reduced from 374 incidents in 1994 to 27 last year, since 40 cameras were positioned on the sites.

The drop in crime has resulted in Darlington's town centre car parks being named as among the safest in the North of England.

People living on the Firthmoor council estate have also witnessed a huge reduction in crime since the security cameras were trained on their streets.

Crime has been cut by 40 per cent on the estate, which was the first residential area to benefit from CCTV when the cameras were switched on last June.