CCTV security cameras could soon be installed in Malvern Link and Barnards Green with existing cameras in Great Malvern upgraded at the same time.

Traders in Barnards Green and Malvern Link were unsuccessful in an attempt to secure Government funding for a similar scheme in July, 1998.

But now it seems a bid for around £200,000 for digital CCTV equipment, submitted to the Home Office by Malvern Hills District Council in March, may be on the verge of success.

Kevin Douglas, corporate director at MHDC, said he was "quietly confident" about the bid and said the cameras could be installed in the new financial year.

However, before it grants any funding, the Home Office has to sort through information it has requested about the bid.

"They have requested information about the additions we have made to the scheme since we first put the bid together, such as the extension to cover the Belle Vue Terrace car park," Mr Douglas said.

The new cameras would cover areas around Barnard's Green Island, Worcester Road through Malvern Link and the new car park on Belle Vue Terrace.

They would also replace old ones in Great Malvern.

"We decided to see if we could replace all the cameras in Great Malvern, because there has been a history of maintenance problems with them," said Mr Douglas.

The new digital cameras have much better picture quality than the current ones in use in Great Malvern, and operators can dial up images without having to spool through an entire video.

Revenue for running costs and decisions as to who will monitor the screens have yet to be sorted out.

News the bid is progressing was welcomed by Sue Mackintosh, owner of Smack's Togs in Barnard's Green, who fronted a petition to get CCTV after her shop was hit by burglaries more than two-and-a-half years ago.

"I'm very pleased that at last we are getting it," she said.

"It's a deterrent, and hopefully it will stop anything happening in the evening when people have left their shops," she added.