IT'S the latest innovation in Southampton police's fight against crime . . . but that's only if it is switched on and working.

Angry traders in Bitterne Precinct are demanding to know why CCTV cameras installed a year ago by city council bosses still have not been turned on.

Council chiefs say the Bitterne cameras will be going live this summer once work is completed to link them to the city's central control room.

Traders say the area will continue to be plagued by vandalism and crime until the cameras are up and running.

Last week, the Daily Echo revealed how police took four days to respond to a till snatch at Barnardo's charity shop in the precinct - when the nearest police station was just a two minute walk away.

Diana Brow, a sales assistant at the branch, said the police investigation into the snatch would have been made easier if the cameras had been on.

She said: "In the precinct we get a lot of problems. There are always gangs of youths up there. It seems to be a total waste of money if the council has put the cameras up and they are not operational."

Joint owner of The Glitz shop Paul Delves said he and his partner had been forced to install a security shutter at the front of the business after youths smashed their shop window.

He said: "Obviously we would like them on and so would everyone else who has a shop."

Traders have been joined in their fight to have the cameras turned on by Southampton Itchen MP John Denham.

He said: "We were firstly told they would be switched on by the end of February and then that they would be definitely switched on by the time the new control room was opened.

"When I was at the opening of the control room I asked to see the pictures from Bitterne and they told me they were not yet connected.

"I think it's getting to be a bit of a joke. The money came a couple of years ago.

"The difficulty now is that many young people involved in anti-social behaviour have got the idea that they can cause a nuisance and nobody is going to see it."

A city council spokesman said that although the council had planned to install cameras in Bitterne it had to pay to get the new control room up and running first.

She added that the cameras were expected to go live in mid-summer once cables had been installed to provide the system with power.

She said: "Priorities are driven by where the safety need is greatest and while we take crime issues at Bitterne very seriously there have been more serious incidents in other areas of the city that we have to address first."