CCTV cameras are finally watching over Silsden’s main street.

The system has been installed following years of campaigning and fundraising by residents, businesses and councillors.

And now it has been confirmed that the town is to be the first outside Bradford to have permanent automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras installed. The ANPR cameras are used to catch wanted criminals by scanning their car number plates as they drive past.

CCTV manager for Bradford Council, Phil Holmes, said the ANPR and CCTV cameras would complement each other.

He said: “We are not saying there is a big crime problem in Silsden, but that is where we are working with the other cameras so it makes sense that the ANPR cameras also go up. The project is a partnership between Bradford Council and the police.”

Originally CCTV was supposed to be up and running in Silsden by Christmas 2007, but there were several technical delays.

Silsden’s mayor, Coun Liz Trainor, said residents would welcome the extra security the cameras should provide in Kirkgate.

She said: “It will help observe behaviour outside pubs and help to see who is causing the damage at night. Things have changed a bit since people first wanted CCTV, for example, the Craven Neighbourhood Policing Team now brings a police presence in the town that wasn’t here before. But they cannot have eyes and ears everywhere.”

Craven Ward district councillor Andrew Mallinson, who has kept up the pressure on Bradford Council to install the CCTV system, said it had been erected on steel poles in Kirkgate and could rotate 360 degrees.

He said: “The idea is for one camera to be at the top of the high street and the other to be at the bottom, so in theory someone can be followed as they walk down the road.

“Any incidents will be viewed by Bradford Council officers and then relayed to the police and they can act accordingly if needs be. The information can be recorded for future use if required.”

Asked about objections to CCTV as an intrusion of privacy, Coun Mallinson said: “We are in a different world now where people accept that there is a new form of surveillance which has become acceptable.”

Insp Sue Sanderson, from Craven Neighbourhood Policing Team, said the CCTV system would act as a good crime deterrent.

She said: “When it comes to anti-social behaviour, people will think twice about how they behave if they know there is CCTV.”

Bradford Council, Silsden Town Council, the former Silsden Business Watch group and local construction company PA Snell & Sons funded the cameras, which cost around £25,000.