AN extra £80,000 is set to be sunk into Worcester's CCTV cameras after fears about the poor condition many are in.

Worcester City Council has agreed to splash some 'surplus' cash left from last year's budget on improving the spy cameras, with concerned politicians calling them "ancient".

We can also reveal how council chiefs say the problem of cameras being stuck in a fixed position has been resolved, with all of them now having their "pan, zoom and tilt" functions restored.

We exclusively revealed on Wednesday how the cameras had been stuck.

The extra spending was voted through during a full council meeting as part of a £120,00 investment package which will see seagulls tackled and more street name plates restored.

The gulls are expected to be tackled with £15,000 of extra money while £20,000 is earmarked for street name plates, but each amount will be subject to a "business case" being developed by staff and could go up or down.

During a long and complex debate, much of it around the financial implications of the move, the condition of the cameras came under fire.

Labour Councillor Lynn Denham, the cabinet member for sustainable communities, said the Tories had "singularly failed" to invest in them.

"When we were last in power (in 2013) we started a programme to repair all the cameras, but it appeared to have ground to a halt and when we returned to power (after two years in opposition) we found that we inherited broken recording equipment," she said.

She said the cameras had become "ancient" after 16 years of under-investment but it was rubbished by Councillor Roger Knight, a former Tory cabinet member who oversaw the installation of high-tech 'metal mickey' CCTV in 2006.

"I didn't join this council until 2004 and all the metal mickeys were not in place until after that, so it was not 16 years ago," he said.

Conservative Councillor Simon Geraghty, who spent nine years as leader of the council, said: "What we've heard tonight is serious concern over CCTV - our reputation as one of the safest places in the country is hard fought and can be very easily lost if we don't invest."

He called for action before December, saying it was too long to wait, before Labour Councillor Joy Squires, the city's deputy leader, said she could "guarantee" proposals would come forward.

The motion to spend extra money was created by the Conservative Party, but it was amended by Labour to take the £120,000 from a different funding pot.

Labour also agreed that the final decision, pending the business cases, will be made by the cabinet by December, enraging opposition Tories who called for a vote by the entire council.

After impassioned debate in the council chamber the amended motion was voted through unanimously.

The council has 65 cameras which are monitored from a remote control room 24 hours a day at Pershore, but police get additional help from CCTV belonging to the Crowngate, University of Worcester and private businesses.