THOUSANDS of residents and 175 businesses have said Worcester’s CCTV network should continue to be monitored, according to the city’s MP.

Mike Foster said nearly 4,000 people and 96 per cent of the businesses who responded to a survey he carried out said they wanted to keep the service.

We previously reported in your Worcester News how the city council is considering no longer employing people to monitor the system to save £140,000 a year from its budget as it seeks to find £4.5 million savings over the next five years. Mr Foster, who has visited the control room at the city’s police headquarters in Castle Street, said: “The response to this campaign is simply staggering.

“I have been getting literally hundreds of letters a day signing up to the campaign to keep our CCTV.”

In Saturday’s Worcester News, city council leader Simon Geraghty said the main issue rested with how a monitored network could be funded from other sources, such as with the help of West Mercia Police.

He also said an announcement on the future of CCTV was due in the coming weeks.

Mr Foster said people had told him how CCTV had helped them – from reuniting them with lost children and confused elderly relatives, to catching criminals.

And he said businesses had been most outspoken in their support, claiming that car parking charges in the city had been put up based on them being secure because of CCTV.

A police spokesman said monitored CCTV was a good aid in fighting and preventing crime.

He also said that the council had a duty to ensure the safety of those in the city.