"DON'T EVEN think about it!" The disembodied voice over the public address system halted the motorcyclist in his tracks.

He had been considering whether he could get his machine up the escalator at Blackburn Shopping Centre.

The barmy biker highlighted one of the more unusual uses of the expensive high-tech surveillance system which operates 24 hours a day in the centre.

A total of 43 closed circuit TV cameras monitor and record everything happening within the shopping centre and nearby streets.

Staff watching a bank of screens are linked directly with Blackburn police station, which has a matching set of screens.

Moveable cameras with zoom facilities mean anything suspicious can be checked out in seconds, allowing trouble to be nipped in the bud before it even gets started.

The monitors are even fitted with wash/wipe systems to ensure a perfect image. In the six months since it was installed the system, with its mixture of colour, black and white and infra red equipment for night time surveillance, has already provided valuable evidence to be used in court.

Tapes are kept for 28 days and may be handed over to police for use in evidence. Otherwise they are destroyed in line with a code of practice operated by City Challenge.

Shopping centre manager Allan Caster said there was no question of the tapes being sold under any circumstances. The main part of the system was installed by centre owners Standard Life at a cost of £500,000 to monitor everything in the shopping centre and car parks.

The remaining cameras dotted on walls and roofs around the town, and the extra monitors in the police station were paid for by City Challenge and Safer Cities. The system is so flexible it means a storekeeper could alert security staff to a shoplifter who could then be followed using cameras from the exit of the store and onto the car park, where the camera would even record their car registration number.

Similarly, staff monitoring screens can alert security staff via personal radios to rush to trouble spots if, say, two gangs of teenagers appear to be squaring up.

The cameras also captured a hit-and-run driver and filmed an assault which will soon be the subject of a court case. They also deter thieves.

"We used to get people sneaking in through the underground car park," said security officer Alan Hargreaves.

"We spotted them on the cameras, then went down and brought them back to the monitoring suite to show them they had been caught on film.

"Now they know they will be caught we have far fewer problems." But apart from security, the system could prove invaluable for a wide range of uses.

When a fire alarm goes off, the cameras allow staff to instantly assess the situation.

In a case where, for instance, an exit was blocked by fire, the public address system could be used to direct people to the safe exits.

If an accident occurs, staff will spot it immediately and phone for an ambulance.

Mr Caster stressed that if people had nothing to hide there was nothing to fear from the spy network.

"Around 340,000 people pass through the centre every week and only a small number attract our attention," he said.

"The message is, if you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear from the cameras.

"There are people who are concerned about cameras being used but it has got to the stage where we have got to fight back against crime.

"We want shoppers to feel more secure, knowing they are protected by cameras."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.