BLURRY CCTV images in Bishop's Waltham branded useless by police are still no nearer to being fixed.

Winchester City Council has admitted that police will have to wait even longer before images transmitted to the control room at Winchester are fit to use as evidence in court while the council seeks funding to sort them out.

The cameras were installed at the beginning of last year 18 months after residents asked the council to install them.

However, a number of technical glitches meant there was an even longer delay getting them up and running as technicians battled to get the cameras to go live.

During that period vandals were able to wreck the village's ornamental Jubilee clock unchallenged.

Even after they started working police couldn't use the images to prosecute offenders because of their poor quality and their inability to swivel.

Inspector Shaun Moore of Bishop's Waltham police said: "They are in a fixed position facing one way down the high street. The cameras are beyond useless because they are not being used at all. It is ridiculous."

Now council officers are looking at the possibility of linking CCTV in Bishop's Waltham up to the Hampshire County Council CCTV network in order to overcome the funding shortage they have and put the cameras right at the same time.

However, they admit that it won't happen for several months yet.

There are also moves to change the CD system that stores the images to a DVD system because they have a longer memory and can hold more footage.

A spokesman said: "We are still looking at ways to improve the quality of the images but that will take several more months and we have to find the funding for it.

"There is a possibility that we can link our CCTV with Hampshire County Council's network and we are looking into that as well."