CLOSED-circuit TV captured 600 incidents around the borough, and led to 69 arrests in eight months last year.

These welcome figures were reported to the council's community safety panel this week.

It heard that camera evidence helped convict one man of a serious assault in Lord Street, Leigh, which led to a six-year jail sentence.

But some residents in Golborne are not impressed. They claim that despite their library being protected by cameras, a hard core of drunken yobs blatantly commit vandalism under the eyes in the sky, and are not prosecuted.

How do they know? Because the gang keeps returning to do it.

CCTV is obviously making a difference in the fight against local crime, the figures prove it.

But it's obviously not enough. I can't understand the mentality of the idiots who, despite its presence, continue their stupid ways.

They must know something we don't. Youngsters are clever these days; they know just how far they can go to avoid prosecution.

When I was young, we respected policemen. If they said jump, we jumped. Now society has changed and there seems to be little recognition of their value.