Thousands act to save CCTV scheme

Nearly 4,000 people have signed up to a campaign to save a city centre CCTV monitoring service, an MP has said.

Worcester's Labour MP Mike Foster said he hoped the city council would "see sense" and change its plan to scrap the scheme.

He said an additional government grant of £130,000 was being allocated to the authority and it could not use lack of cash as an excuse to scrap the service.

Worcester City Council has refused to comment.

Mr Foster said he had been campaigning to keep the service working after the authority announced its intention to pull the funding and make the monitoring staff redundant.

A total of 175 city centre businesses have also signed up to support the fight to keep the service, the MP added.

Mr Foster said he had been "most struck" by the number of people who had told him about their personal experiences in relation to the CCTV and how they value the service.

He said: "Not all of it was crime related. I've had examples of mothers being reunited with their children who had wandered off (and) elderly people confused and lost reunited with carers."