A MULTI-million-pound network of closed-circuit television cameras in the New Forest has failed to have any noticeable impact on crime levels, it has been revealed.

A study of crime figures has shown that the four regions where the cameras were installed including Ringwood town centre have "not experienced a sustained or significant decrease in crime".

Yet police have claimed that the cameras are a success and play a key role in their investigations, providing them with evidence of crime and disorder.

The £1.2m camera network, largely funded with Home Office cash and £100,000 from New Forest district council, was launched in July, 2002, with much fanfare by Hampshire Constabulary chief constable Paul Kernaghan.

A total of 39 CCTV cameras were installed in Totton, Lymington and Ringwood, with a control centre in Lyndhurst.

However, a report by the New Forest Community Safety Partnership, which operates the scheme, casts doubts on its effectiveness. It found that between July 2002 and July 2003: There has been no sustained decrease in crime in Lymington, although criminal activity levels have risen more slowly than the New Forest average.

The low crime levels in Pennington were already decreasing before CCTV was installed and it was impossible to say whether the cameras had any impact. Crime then increased from the autumn of 2002, suggesting it was "unlikely" that there was any sustained impact.

Crime in Ringwood followed the trend for the New Forest, with "no observable decrease from the time the cameras were introduced".

Since the cameras were first introduced in Totton, crime has at times increased at a greater rate than the New Forest average and it "seems unlikely the cameras had an impact on crime".

The CCTV report will now go to New Forest district council's crime and disorder review panel.

Inspector Phil Winchester said: "The government set the safety partnership a target of reducing crime by 17.5 per cent by 2008. The partnership has so far achieved a 12 per cent reduction and is on course to meet the target.

"What we will be unable to ascertain is the contribution that CCTV has made to this."