Eastleigh's CCTV system could be significantly reduced with worries over its £300,000 a year price tag.

An eight-week public consultation has been launched by Eastleigh Borough Council to seek residents’ views regarding CCTV provision and the affordability of continuing to provide the service in the borough.

It comes as the network was labelled "no longer fit for purpose".

Legally, the borough council does not have to provide CCTV.

The cabinet has requested a system review to find a way of delivering a more “efficient” and “cost-effective” service.

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In the past, the council used CCTV in Eastleigh town centre as a discretionary tool for supporting the work of other agencies, especially the police, and to a limited extent, its own services.

The town centre currently has 51 public realm CCTV cameras and four cameras in Hedge End, owned and operated by the council and monitored via a control centre in a shared facility with Shopmobility and the business improvement district in the Swan Centre.

In addition to the cameras in the town centre and Hedge End, satellite CCTV systems cover various council assets, including Bandstand Court, Eastleigh House and Wessex House.

Those satellite systems are not integrated with the existing systems managed and monitored out of the main control room and are provided through additional third-party contracts.

Despite the public realm and car parking CCTV control room being “suitable” at the time of installation, the council said it now needed an upgrade as “it no longer complies with modern industry and ergonomic standards” and should be decommissioned.

“In addition, the system is becoming increasingly hard to maintain and sourcing replacement parts when required is increasingly difficult”, the report revealed.

A report said the costs for operating the service and associated overheads are more than £300,000 a year.

It added costs “need to be reduced to relieve pressure on statutory and high-priority services”.

The eight-week consultation will include the alternatives the council is proposing, like decommissioning the existing public realm CCTV but retaining essential car parking and housing CCTV services.

According to the council, the police and crime commissioner (PCC) previously said that a new police station would be opened in Eastleigh town centre.

When open, public realm CCTV could jointly operate at the station.

The consultation runs until September 18.