A CCTV camera will be installed in Cockermouth town centre - after years of calls for action.

The town council agreed, at a recent online meeting, to continue with plans for a security camera, which had been put on hold due to covid.

It received a grant of £3,000 from the Police Crime Commissioner in March and will pay the remaining cost of installation, support and maintenance - £5,960.66.

The camera will be installed on a lamppost outside Main St Fisheries on Main Street.

Over the years, traders, the town council and then Workington MP Sue Hayman have called for CCTV in town.

Mayor Julie Laidlow said: "It will give everyone peace of mind. People have wanted this for years and now we have the opportunity to provide it. It's a great thing for the town.

"There has been incidents of anti-social behaviour recently, this will be essential in trying to deal with that.

"There's hardly any police presence in town, I'd hate to think that having CCTV would mean there would be even less police presence. Let's hope that doesn't happen and that they work together."

She hopes there may be more cameras in the future.

"One is better than none but hopefully in the future we will get another one which could go on Station Street."

Andrew Marshall is chairman of the town's Chamber of Trade. "I think CCTV is a good idea and will work well together with the cameras that a lot of the shops have as well," he said.

"We don't want to have every inch of the town covered but this should be a good deterrent.

"Generally I think things are pretty good in the town at the moment. A camera should make people think twice hopefully."

At the beginning of last year Mrs Hayman wrote to the Minister for Policing, and Peter McCall, Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, calling for action. Criminals had targeted various shops over the festive period, causing thousands of pounds of damage and resulting in many windows being boarded up.