Yorkshire city among biggest spenders on 'useless' CCTV cameras

Birmingham City Council, home of the controversial Project Champion scheme which saw more than 200 surveillance cameras installed in two largely Muslim neighbourhoods, topped the list of local authority big spenders with 10.5m on CCTV alone, Big Brother Watch said.

Third in line was Leeds, with a figure of 3.8m.

The figures, provided to the campaigners following requests under the Freedom of Information Act, showed the total 314,835,170.39 spent by 336 local councils on installing and operating cameras between 2007/08 and 2009/10 could have paid the salaries of more than 15,000 nurses.

Alex Deane, the campaign group's director, said: "This is a shocking figure. Public money is being wasted on snooping surveillance that does next to nothing to prevent or solve crime.

"We are being watched more than ever before, and we're being ripped off into the bargain.

"British taxpayers will be scandalised to see their money being thrown away like this in the current economic climate."

More than 80 councils failed to respond and 15 said they did not operate any public-facing CCTV cameras.

West Midlands Police apologised over the Project Champion scheme and chief constable Chris Sims admitted the force got the balance between counter-terrorism and excessive intrusion into people's lives "so wrong".

The cameras sparked anger from civil liberties campaigners and residents in Birmingham.