City residents 'most watched over'

PEOPLE in Portsmouth are being watched more closely than almost anywhere else in the UK, according to a new study.

Portsmouth City Council owns 1,454 CCTV cameras, the joint highest number in the UK, according to research from privacy group Big Brother Watch.

The cameras are trained on the activities of a daytime population of 186,701, meaning there are 7.8 cameras per 1,000 people in the city, the second highest ratio after the Outer Hebrides.

Elsewhere, Fareham owns 75 cameras to watch 107,977 people, Havant's got 73 for a population of 116,849, Gosport has 42 for 76,415 people and West Sussex operates 570 for 753,614.

Big Brother Watch's study shows that in less than a decade, the number of CCTV cameras controlled by local councils has risen from 21,000 to 60,000.

Group's director, Alex Deane, said: 'The evidence for the ability of CCTV to deter or solve crimes is sketchy at best.'