A CCTV camera is to be fitted at the entrance to an East Lancashire housing estate in a bid to rid it of crime.

Hyndburn Council is to pay £12,000 to install the digital camera at the entrance to the Southwood Drive housing estate, off Manchester Road in Baxenden.

Councillors sitting on the Baxenden Area Council hope the new camera, which is being paid for by their committee and through a special pot of cash put aside by the borough council, will protect their community garden from vandals.

And police hope it will deter out-of-town burglars from targeting the area.

CCTV cameras have already been installed on main streets in Accrington, Clayton-le-Moors, Oswaldtwistle, Great Harwood and Rishton.

But the new camera in Baxenden will be the first in the borough to be installed on the entrance to an estate.

Some 80 burglaries have been committed in the last year in Baxenden -- around one fifteenth of the borough's burglaries -- and more than 150 cases of juvenile nuisance have been reported, making up one-fifth of the borough's problems.

The new Baxenden Community Garden, built with area council money at the end of Southwood Drive, was vandalised within a month of it being finished in the spring.

Sgt Mark Porter, the area's police sergeant, said: "Overall, Baxenden does not suffer badly from crime.

"But it is not helped by its location because it is easy to access from several main roads. Juvenile nuisance is by far the biggest problem and we now have two officers in the area, dedicated to tackling it."

Baxenden area council chairman John Griffiths said: "We are very pleased to have received match-funding from the council to pay for this scheme.

"The Baxenden area is a target for criminals and the CCTV camera will help people feel a lot safer in the long run.

"It will be positioned above the community garden at the entrance to the estate and will be able to monitor the whole area around it.

"Hopefully, it will be a deterrent not just for the juveniles who cause a nuisance but for people who travel from outside the area."

A meeting of the village's area council was informed that the new camera would be a digital make, meaning it would be much smaller, have a greater zoom and produce much clearer pictures.

It would be hooked up to the CCTV control room in Accrington police station, which also covers the rest of the borough.

All of the borough's CCTV cameras are being updated to digital standards over the next year, with the first ones being installed in the spring.

Coun Griffiths added: "The idea is to provide much sharper pictures which will be of greater use to the police."

All CCTV cameras are gradually being updated by councils across the country.