A new £20,000 CCTV camera is to be installed to help stamp out anti-social behaviour in a Shrewsbury trouble-spot and help residents and traders feel safer.

The camera, planned for Ditherington Road, will be the first of its kind in the county as it will be hooked up to a control centre in the town through a wireless connection providing coverage of the area 24 hours a day.

It will provide real-time coverage of a row of shops, a road crossing and an estate and will replace an existing temporary camera which has proved a success since it was installed last year. David Roberts, environmental enforcement manager at Shropshire Council, today said the wireless connection and the way it is hooked up to the control centre will make it the first of its kind in the county.

He said: “It’s the first time we’ve used wireless connections to go straight into the control centre 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The camera will overlook the shops because they have been targeted by vandals, and will also focus on the traffic lights and the nearby estate to help make shopkeepers and people living in the area feel safer.

It follows a string of complaints about anti-social behaviour in the area.

Alan Mosley, Shropshire councillor for the area, today welcomed the move.

He said: “The current camera, that has been there for about a year, has proved extremely successful in deterring the acts of vandalism that have taken place there.

“The shops have significantly benefited from a reduction in vandalism and crime.”