CCTV could be set to return to Ceredigion, three years after the system was mothballed by the council in a cost-cutting move despite vehement opposition - but the county’s taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill.

The county’s 23 cameras, in Aberystwyth, Aberaeron, Cardigan, Lampeter, New Quay and Tregaron, were switched off and left unmonitored in April 2014 to save Ceredigion council £150,000 a year.

Calls for the system’s reinstatement have been repeatedly made amid fears over rising crime numbers and falling conviction rates, and now Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn has said he is raising the amount of money collected by police from the council tax to “move ahead” with his plans to “re-invest in CCTV”.

Mr Llywelyn has given no firm plans as to where in Dyfed-Powys the extra CCTV investment will come.

Mr Llywelyn’s predecessor, Christopher Salmon, refused to fund the lost systems when he was in power, and said that public CCTV should “remain the responsibility of local authorities, town and community councils”, despite the county council’s withdrawal of funding and town councils refusing to pick up the slack.

Investing in a “modern CCTV infrastructure to improve the safety of our towns and communities” was a key campaign pledge for Mr Llywelyn, who was elected in May last year.

Aberystwyth councillor Ceredig Davies said: “CCTV, or the lack of it, has been a big issue ever since Ceredigion County Council withdrew the service.

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