WORK is gathering pace to update the city’s ageing CCTV cameras – as councillors look set to order a report into the cost of upgrading.

Most of the council-owned CCTV cameras across the city are almost a decade old and becoming outdated and the wire used to transfer images is equally old.

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 old – between 15 and 20-years-old – they can only carry analogue pictures rather than modern digital ones.

If plans are approved at a meeting next Wednesday (October 24), the council’s communities committee will compile a fully-costed report on what can and needs to be done to update the city’s CCTV cameras.

The city council has already been updating some of the nearly two-decade old wires and has looked into upgrading the cameras through the appointment of a CCTV expert.

Only three of the council’s 66 cameras are high definition (HD) and use digital fibre link cables.

The city council could not tell the Worcester News which cameras need to be repaired for operational reasons but did admit earlier this month - after the body of University of Worcester student Tom Jones was found - that the CCTV camera at Sabrina Bridge had not worked for more than a year.

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 at Wychavon District Council in Pershore.

The city council allocates £27,500 a year to run and maintain the city’s CCTV cameras but spent £69,000 last year. The cost for the cameras to be monitored in Pershore was £45,000 last year.

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