CONCERNS are being raised about CCTV cameras in Worcester - with at least three of them "out of action" for months.

Your Worcester News can reveal how a trio of cameras in mystery locations are known to be not working, one of which was damaged during the floods of February last year.

Worcester City Council is now coming under pressure to resolve it as the cameras, which are monitored from Pershore's civic centre, are a vital tool in the fight against crime.

The centre has around six workers monitoring 100 cameras, 68 of which cover Worcester and the rest overlooking Droitwich, Pershore and Evesham.

At the centre of the worry is the departure of the city council's boss in charge of the department with responsibility for CCTV, who has not been replaced.

We can reveal how Mike Worsnop, the popular former head of safer and stronger communities, quit some weeks ago to run his own sports company, Pitched Limited, and under a money-saving move his workload has been split among other staff.

Politicians are not revealing where the cameras are, saying they are concerned about repercussions, but have urged bosses to get them up and running again.

Councillor Lynn Denham, who represents the city centre and sits on Safer Worcester, the body which meets up bi-monthly to discuss the cameras, said: "We are talking about months - one of the cameras was affected by the floods and that was a year ago.

"It's an officer capacity issue and about money being saved, but we haven't got a functional system."

Cllr Denham is vice-chair of the body, and has now raised it with the council's Conservative leadership.

Safer Worcester includes the police, Worcester's Business Improvement District (BID), council representatives and Dean Hill, who runs Tramps, Velvet Lounge and Mode.

Councillor David Wilkinson, cabinet member for safer and stronger communities, said: "The whole of the cabinet takes a keen interest in this, there are over 60 cameras in Pershore relating to Worcester city and a reporting mechanism is in place which means issues can be taken up with the contractors.

"I don't want to identify particular cameras which are down at any moment in time."

He said after Mr Worsnop's departure there has been a "readjustment of priorities" to make sure other staff have taken on responsibility for chasing it up.

In 2011 the city council decided to merge the service with Wychavon, saving £110,000.

Despite relatively few staff, they are monitored 24 hours a day and capture around 300 incidents a month.