What started as a small scale CCTV surveillance operation at one Hertfordshire school could become a county-wide scheme covering more than 450 schools.

Now Hertfordshire County Council is looking to extend it to play centres, athletics tracks, car parks and cemeteries. Adpro FastTrace multi-site video is being used with Video Central Gold to help cut vandalism and crime.

The system, with audio warning function, initially monitored a single school in Stevenage. Now the council are discussing the possibilities of using existing Broadband and the National Grid for Learning to deliver a wider service to all the schools, that would just need to pay for cameras and monitoring.