RESIDENTS living in Thornbury are going to help pay for CCTV cameras in the town through an increase in their council tax bill.

Thornbury Town Council has decided that to cover the cost of a CCTV system fitted at the Mundy Playing Fields, the amount should be added to its share of council tax.

Councillors voted in favour of adding the £1,369 needed for the cameras to its precept at a meeting held earlier this month.

At the full council meeting members agreed a budget of £433,650 for the next financial year, which is a 2.4 percent increase on the current financial year's budget of £417,426.

Residents living in a Band D property in the town will have to pay £96.47 to the council, which is a £2.18 increase on this year's £94.29.

Thornbury Town Council had applied for a £1,369 grant from the Safer and Stronger Community Groups Initiative Fund to cover the cost of the CCTV cameras but this was turned down.

Lesley Jones, chairman of Thornbury Town Council's playing fields and cemetery committee, said: "We have decided to add the amount to the precept, which does raise it a little but we are also still looking into other funding possibilities.

"Everyone on the council felt the cameras had been beneficial in preventing criminal damage and nuisance behaviour.

"For many summers now the council has had to pay for constant repairs to the paddling pool, which we can't keep doing."

Last year because of the recession the town council decided that it would not increase its share of local council tax but would reduce it by half a percent.

As a result several projects within the town had their budgets reduced or cut completely, including the town's allotments development and the Poulterbrook Sports Ground Project.

The council has not reinstated any of the funding cuts for the next financial year and councillors have decided that any expenditure on the Poulterbrook Project would be funded through a loan.