MILLIONS of pounds have been spent by Enfield Council on CCTV cameras over the past three years making it one of the biggest spenders in the country.

The authority spent more than £3.1million between 2007 and 2010 on a total of 154 cameras which are scattered across the borough and capture the movements of ordinary citizens. Half of this was spent solely on 54 new cameras carrying a price tag of approximately £25,000 each to run.

The figures came to light after civil liberties campaigners, Big Brother Watch, sent Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to town halls across the UK to expose the extent of what they claim is a waste of public money.

Big Brother Watch Director Alex Deane said: "This is a shocking figure. Public money is being wasted on snooping surveillance that does next to nothing to prevent or solve crime.

"We are being watched more than ever before, and we're being ripped off into the bargain. British taxpayers will be scandalised to see their money being thrown away like this in the current economic climate."

In 2003, the council opened a specialist CCTV centre, the Enfield Public Safety Centre, based at the Claverings Industrial Estate, in Montagu Road, Edmonton.

The £2million centre, funded through a grant from the Home Office, is the control point for a network of cameras based around the borough.

It is also linked to Transport for London (TfL) cameras so traffic problems can be monitored, and also has the capability to be connected to any Enfield businesses with burglary alarms.

But it also provides cameras for Waltham Forest Council and train company First Capital Connect who pays for the services. This means only £565,000, half a million pounds, is spent each year to run the borough's CCTV network, the council said.

Councillor Chris Bond, cabinet member for the environment, said: "In reality Enfield spends around £1.88 per Enfield resident a year to help make our people safer but the issue for me is not about money, it's about safety. For instance our cameras were instrumental catching the suspect in the alleged Halfway House pub murder recently.

"The most basic human right is the right to life and while libertarians sit in their ivory tower pontificating over whether CCTV is an infringement of civil rights, in the real world it has led to the arrest of over 2,200 criminals in just three years - and that is priceless."

CCTV evidence also proved vital in putting robber Jason James, of Haringey, who punched, kicked, and dragged the 75-year-old man along the ground in Fore Street on July 4.