PROSTITUTION and antisocial behaviour soared on a Southampton estate because CCTV cameras were faulty for about two months, residents have claimed.

Council chiefs have come under attack as they have only just fixed the equipment on Northam Estate after it went down about eight weeks ago.

Residents' leaders have hit out at the lengthy delays and said it led to a rise in crime in the area's precinct.

The mobile £1m cameras, which also operate in Bitterne and Woolston, were first installed about 18 months ago but broke down just eight weeks later. They then took several weeks to be repaired.

Problems surfaced again this summer and left residents fuming at the ongoing faults.

Dawn Humphries, secretary of the Northam Tenants' and Residents' Association, said: "It has been extremely frustrating for us this summer.

"In those few weeks they were down there has been an increase in the numbers of prostitutes on the estate, an increase in antisocial behaviour and an increase in drunkenness as well.

"I'm not saying that this would never have happened but if the cameras were working then they would have been spotted and they would have been moved away.

"We are all working hard to make people want to come here to the estate but it doesn't help if when you drive into it you see these problems around the precinct."

A spokesman for the city council said although the cameras had been fully operational and were able to sweep areas, problems with microwave links in Northam meant the CCTV control room had problems directing them to certain positions.

He added engineers had now fixed the problems.

CCTV chiefs said technicians had been trying to tackle the fault since it was identified and that manufacturers for part of the equipment had to be called in. Northam beat officer PC Kerry Loveless agreed there had been a rise in antisocial behaviour because of the problems.

She added: "We don't normally have problems in the precinct since the cameras were put up but it has increased.

"It can make it harder for us if there are incidents because it means there isn't any evidence for us to go on."