Parish councillors in Silsden, Steeton and Eastburn have been invited to get involved in Keighley Area Panel's anti-crime partnership.

At meetings of the parish councils in Silsden and Steeton with Eastburn Chris Slaven, KAP's community safety co-ordinator, said more participation was needed at the local anti-crime meetings.

Last Thursday in Silsden he said: "What we need is a more unified voice from the parish councils to transmit through to the anti-crime partnership in Keighley."

Mr Slaven, whose area of responsibility has just been extended beyond the SRB boundaries, spoke to councillors about the possibility of using a mobile CCTV unit in Silsden, an idea that has attracted much interest in the town.

He said: "We are looking for Bradford council to part-fund this along with Keighley SRB.

"If we can show the need is there we may be able to go ahead and buy these cameras. It's a shot in the dark but it's worth going ahead with."

Describing how the system would work he said: "All it needs is someone with a ladder to hook it up on a lamppost and then it transmits pictures to a little box which has a joystick on it, meaning it can be manoeuvred.

"If you have a particular problem every Friday night at 9pm we could just hook it up beforehand.

"The beauty of the system is that the signal doesn't go back to Keighley but to the box, wherever it's situated."

Former parish council chairman Councillor Paul Bromley was heartened by Mr Slaven's talk and said: "There are some of us here who believe that CCTV is the way forward for security and crime reduction in Silsden."

Speaking after the meeting Mr Slaven said small grants of around £2,000 could be made available for anti-crime projects in the community.

Cllr Lawrence Walton, vice chairman of the council, also asked Mr Slaven about the possibility of better street lighting in the town.

Mr Slaven said it was a valid point and added he would raise it at the next meeting of KAP.

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