THE controversial issue of CCTV security cameras in Pendle has been switched back on after Labour and Tory councillors combined to press ahead with investigations into how they can be funded.

Pendle Council officers have been asked to look into all avenues of funding for the introduction of cameras across the borough.

Councillors also called on MP Gordon Prentice and the area's six county councillors to support any bids, especially for Government cash.

Major initiatives such as £50,000 set aside for a Council Shop in Brierfield, town centre wardens and an energy efficiency scheme have been put on hold until a decision on whether or not cameras are economically feasible is made.

The move was agreed last night when Labour and the Conservatives, supporters of using cameras to fight crime and anti-social behaviour, voted together and overturned Liberal opposition.

Until the Liberals lost control of the council in the local election earlier this month they had argued that cameras were too expensive and alternative crime-fighting methods should be used.

Labour group leader, Coun Azhar Ali, said: "Over the last few years this group has been campaigning for CCTV cameras in Pendle. In Nelson we've been held back by the previous Liberal administration.

"This group put forward a comprehensive budget that met the capital and revenue costs.

"The Liberals seem to be embedded in a time warp that seems to take no account of technological changes or changes in the cost of implementing CCTV cameras.

"We agree that CCTV cameras are not a panacea but they are on the mechanisms through which you can cut crime and the fear of crime. That's one of the elements that is keeping people away from Nelson town centre."

But Liberal Councillor David Whipp argued: "The people I talk to in West Craven, not one of them has come up to me and asked for CCTV. There's no pressure for it. What they are pressing to resist is for Pendle Council to sink all its resources into Nelson and Colne at the expense of the peripheral areas of the borough."

Coun Whipp added: "You're going to have to spend the best part of £1 million over the next three years to make a proper scheme. That money doesn't grow on trees."

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