More closed circuit television cameras are set to be introduced to tackle crime in Hertsmere following the completion of a new control centre in Borehamwood this year.

Hertsmere Borough Council has agreed to spend up to £500,000 on a new CCTV centre at Clarendon Park, which it expects to be up-and-running by the beginning of August.

This month a new company was appointed to manage the service, and the council now wants to introduce more cameras at crime hot spots in the borough.

Hertsmere Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, which involves the council and the police, will bid for Government funding to install cameras in priority locations.

Councillor Morris Bright, the council's portfolio holder responsible for CCTV, said: "We need to expand the service everyone is beginning to see the effects that CCTV can have."

He said the opening of a new monitoring centre, to replace the existing suite at Elstree Film and Television Studios, would provide facilities which would allow for expansion.

The future of the CCTV system had been in jeopardy, after Elstree Film and Television Studios told the council that it would not house the control centre after August.

But Clarendon Park, off Grosvenor Road, is viewed as a suitable site for a new centre, as the disused park has recently been a meeting place for drug-users and vandals.

Elstree Film and Television Studios became concerned last year after footage of an actress from one of its CCTV cameras was leaked to a national newspaper.

It is understood that United Guarding, which then monitored the council's cameras, dismissed a member of staff after pictures of Amanda Holden were published.

David Ashlee, the council's head of community services, said he hoped Prime Interaction, which is now managing the service, would bring in extra clients.

The CCTV service makes money for the council because businesses and private organisations pay to have their cameras monitored at its 24-hour control centre.

Mr Ashlee said the partnership would compile a list of Hertsmere's priority locations for cameras in the next few months, and then make applications for cash grants.

More than 50 cameras are monitored at Hertsmere's control centre, and around 230 shopkeepers have signed up to a scheme which allows them to direct town centre cameras.

Although the council has agreed to fund the building of a new centre at Clarendon Park, its members have yet to grant planning permission for the development.