CRIME-busting cameras are set to roll across more parts of Eastleigh town centre in a new £232,000 initiative.

Currently 44 cameras cover the town's main shopping streets, car parks and pedestrian routes including links to the rail and bus stations and across Leigh Road Recreation Ground.

CCTV has been a huge success in zooming in on the criminal and sweeping away potential trouble from the town centre streets.

So much so that Eastleigh has become one of the safest places in the country.

There are also eight help points in the shopping centre area where at the press of a button pedestrians can summon help by having a direct link to the CCTV nerve centre.

Now the CCTV network is set to be extended. An extra eight cameras will be installed to cover the main routes between the town centre and the former Pirelli factory site where hundreds of new homes are being built.

The council's executive committee has also given the green light for a new control room which will be able to monitor around-the- clock the larger system.

Cash for the extra cameras will come from contributions from developers of the Pirelli site.

Work on installing the new cameras is expected to start next February to pave the way for the new control room and surveillance system to swing into action by May.

Eastleigh's CCTV network started with 11 cameras in 1997 and three years later the number was brought up to 44.