The Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall has vowed to fund a £200,000 CCTV project, which includes developing a specialist monitoring hub.

Alison Hernandez made the announcement today, stating that she believes CCTV is an "invaluable resource for the police".

As part of the plan the centralised CCTV monitoring hub, based in the fire station at Tolvaddon, will be expanded, enabling more footage to be monitored without placing a burden on local police officers.

Ms Hernandez believes this will make residents safer as it would free up more police officers to patrol the streets, as well as providing crucial evidence for convictions.

She said: "I want to support local authorities to better monitor their existing systems.

"It's very much about building them into a hub where you've got excellent staff monitoring CCTV on behalf of local authorities.

"This helps reduce the cost of them, it helps provide reassurance to the public, and it also protects police officers on the street and ensures we have some good evidence when we need it.

“I want to create safe, resilient and connected communities.

"That involves CCTV as well as police officers on the street helping to keep us safe. Let’s try and work with other partners to protect our communities. That’s what it’s all about.”

The development of the Tolvaddon Hub, which currently assists nine Cornish towns, present opportunities for other local authorities.

The PCC will work with them to develop this model and deliver similar interconnected systems in Devon.

Geoff Brown, Cornwall Council's cabinet member for communities, said: "“I think this is a fantastic opportunity to team up with the Police and Crime Commissioner who is totally committed to the systems and is prepared to put money towards the capital investment of it.

“Not only does it benefit the fire service because we can monitor situations when there are fires, but we can collate the data for the police. This saves the police officers time when they can be better employed out on the streets.”

Counsellor Tom Wright, from East Devon District Council, said: "I welcome the Commissioner's commitment to CCTV.

“East Devon District Council is taking the opportunity afforded by the redevelopment of Exmouth Town Council building to explore with the PCC and other towns in the district how, by working together, we can achieve enhanced CCTV coverage throughout the district.

"There is no doubt good CCTV schemes are a deterrent and also provide valuable evidence post incident.”