It was an 'historic' moment for three north Norfolk towns today when their mayors met to sign a contract to maintain a CCTV service in the towns.

Sheringham, North Walsham and Fakenham will now take control of their own security cameras after North Norfolk District Council scrapped the service last month.

Sheringham town mayor Doug Smith, said he believed it was vital in maintaining the safety and security of residents and visitors.

He said: 'With government cuts to district council budgets, town councils now play a much broader role in providing services to their residents.

'This historic occasion marks the success of the cooperation between Fakenham, Sheringham and North Walsham town councils.

'The events have very much enhanced the relationship between the three town councils.'

CCTV was previously managed by the district council and reviewed at a control room in Fakenham.

But now, rather than a traditional maintenance centre, the CCTV will be a reactive service, reviewed directly by the police at its headquarters in each town.

Fakenham town mayor Adrian Vertigan said as individual councils they could not have afforded this system.

He said: 'We were gutted when North Norfolk District Council decided to scrap the system and we wanted to keep it for our towns.'

The CCTV cameras will still capture images 24 hours a day and will store these images for 30 days.

Sheringham and North Walsham were already contributing £2,000 each year towards the cost of their CCTV.

The district council offered the towns £50,318 to take on the CCTV which will maintain the cameras for three years.

The council had planned to scrap all of its CCTV cameras to save £200,000 per year.

There are eight cameras in North Walsham, six in Sheringham and 16 in Fakenham.