BIG Brother could be coming to a street corner near you.

Members of the Police, Fire and Safer Communities Board for the Borders hit back at local authority proposals to pull the plug on CCTV.

Budget constraints had led Scottish Borders Council chiefs to push responsibility for the monitoring systems onto the police and individual communities.

But Friday’s meeting urged pen pushers at Newtown St Boswells to focus on the future - and help introduce state-of-the-art digital systems to any town or village that wants them.

Safer Communities team manager John Scott, who is also a serving police sergeant, said: “We currently have outdated systems that are different in each town. This should be an opportunity to introduce new technology, not just for the towns that already have CCTV, but even wider. You could look at a collective purchase to save money and install a system that can be viewed in real time at a police area control room.” Cameras are currently recording round-the-clock images in eight local towns.

But the dated analogue systems produce poor quality footage - and many cameras as well as the infrastructure are needing replaced.

Services director Andrew Drummond-Hunt asked Friday’s board to back his proposals for re-allocating the £40,000 CCTV running costs and further £23,000 for replacement cameras to different projects.

And also shift more responsibility onto the police.

But he was shot down by the region’s top cop, Chief Superintendent Gill Imery. She said: “CCTV is not for the benefit of the police, it is for the benefit of communities.

“The biggest advantage of CCTV is preventing crime.

“Once an incident has occurred CCTV is just one tactic we can use during our investigation.

“We will honour previous commitments with CCTV but we will not enter into any new ones.” Systems currently operate in Galashiels, Melrose, Selkirk, Hawick, Kelso, Peebles, Duns and Eyemouth.

And each community will be asked if it wants to keep having cameras focused on its town centre.

A wider consultation with other community councils will also be carried out before a final report is taken to a full meeting of Scottish Borders Council.

George Higgs, who represents the voluntary sector on the board, said: “CCTV reassures the public - it makes people feel safer.

“The CCTV we have just now needs updated. The technology is there and we should all be working together to bring it to any community that wants it.” Jedburgh councillor Rory Stewart added: “We have to consult the wider public on this. Some communities want CCTV while others won’t.” It was agreed to carry out a full public consultation before any final proposals are made on the future of CCTV.