CHEPSTOW police are likely to get the answer they want to their plea for the town's closed-circuit television system to be improved.

Town councillors will decide at a future meeting whether to accept a recommendation to replace up to five of the cameras.

Chepstow Town Coun­cil's finance committee has said the full council should give the go-ahead for new cameras which will cost up to £8,350.

Four of the 10-year-old cameras need to be replaced at a cost of £6,730 but for an extra £1,620 the camera at the bottom of Welsh Street could also be renewed which would allow the camera in the bus station to be brought back into use.

Councillor Ned Hey­wood said: "If we do not spend this money now, we'll end up spending it next year. We should do it as soon as possible."

The town council pays for CCTV as part of an agreement – or memorendum of understanding – with Monmouthshire Council but a dispute about the details led to the town council's payment of £12,781 for 2011 being witheld.

That will now be paid but the town council is looking closely at the new agreement which is due to start in May – and is also in discussions with a private company to run the system.

One of the main sticking points is over whether the town council should be liable for the cost of inflation – the current agreement uses the Retail Prices Index but councillors say at most it should be the Consumer Prices Index which is runs at a lower rate.

At the last meeting of the full town council, Inspector Jim Walker and PC Steve Smith joined Monmouthshire Coun­cil's anti-social behaviour co-ordinator, Andy Mason, to put the case for an improved CCTV system.

They said modern cameras would provide better pictures and if they were contained in domes, people would not know if they were pointed in their direction.

Among the incidents where the current system helped the police was one where £1,500 worth of damage was caused to the windows of the Peacocks store in High Street.