CCTV TV could finally be coming to Barnards Green and Malvern Link if a bid for cash proves successful.

Malvern Hills District Council has applied to the Home Office for funding of just over £100,000 to pay for five cameras in the Link and three cameras in Barnards Green.

The cameras could not come too soon for traders in the two shopping centres, who have been campaigning for CCTV since 1999.

They say the installation of cameras in Great Malvern has pushed crime into the Link and Barnards Green.

But the Community Safety and Police Liaison Working Party, which was set up to investigate the need for CCTV, reported that the level of crime in these areas did not justify the extension of the scheme.

Members said the crime statistics in Barnards Green and Malvern Link were "relatively low with 1 to 1.25 incidents per week and 50 per cent of these would not be captured by CCTV cameras".

The working party also said it was unlikely that the crime statistics would support the funding bid.

But Tony Burford, head of construction services at MHDC, was more optimistic.

He said: "When I submitted the bid I was told the Home Office was looking for bids which were achievable, because the spending for crime reduction was underspent and the Government wanted to push it up."

If the bid is unsuccessful the working party has recommended that the council does not support the extension of CCTV.