CRIME prevention entered a new era on Wednesday as work got under way on installing closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in Leigh and Wigan.

Engineers started putting up the poles on which the high-tech cameras will be mounted and it's hoped the whole system will be operational before Christmas.

The cameras will be able to pan down streets and zoom in on trouble spots, producing remarkably sharp colour pictures.

The images will be recorded by the council's central watch station and will be simultaneously relayed to the police.

The total cost of CCTV installation - in Leigh and Wigan -is £170,000, funded by the council, local businesses, a Home Office grant, Coalfield Challenge and Wigan City Challenge.

Deputy Council leader Tom Sherratt said: "All the evidence from other areas and our town trials show that CCTV cameras can make a dramatic difference to levels of town centre crime and disorder.

"We have taken advice from the police about the best places to locate the cameras in order to get optimum coverage."

Cllr Sherratt added that no law-abiding citizen had anything to fear from the use of CCTV, and that fears of 'big brother' were totally misplaced.

"We have the strictest possible controls in place to ensure that these pictures cannot be misused, or sold to any other agency.

"They can be viewed for the legitimate pursuit of law-breakers or alerting the authorities to potential trouble," he stressed.

In Leigh the poles are being erected at King Street/Market Street/Railway Road/Bradshawgate; King Street/ Spinning Jenny Way; Bradshawgate/Albion Street; outside the town hall square; Market Street/Lord Street.

The will also be cameras watching the town hall car park, the civic square and Doctors Nook car park.

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