Swale's Big Brother operation is likely to be run from Medway next year, as the borough council looks at ways of saving money.

If the move goes ahead, it will eventually result in a saving of more than £45,000 a year.

Members of Swale Council’s executive committee agreed on Wednesday night to work with Medway Council to provide Swale CCTV from March 2010.

The proposal is to install a Swale desk at the Medway control centre and operate a monitoring and maintenance service for a fixed fee of £194,000 a year.

Between October 1, 2008 and September 30 this year, the Swale cameras resulted in 151 arrests in Sheppey, 272 in Sittingbourne and 36 in Faversham.

Under the new system images from CCTV cameras across Swale will be transferred to Medway via fibre optic cable enabling real time images to be seen.

The service will be covered 24/7 and it will benefit from a dedicated manager looking after the CCTV service.

The council will need to invest £150,000 to pay for equipment needed to ensure a seamless transfer of the Swale CCTV network to Medway Control Centre but it is estimated that after three years an annual saving of £46,880 will be made.

Although Medway Control Centre falls outside of the Mid Kent policing area and could cause some operational difficulties for the police a facility will be installed to download CCTV images in either Swale House or Sittingbourne police station.

An enhanced intelligence and briefing system will also be introduced.

These will be in place when the operation moves and will be financed through existing budgets.

Officers did look at modernising the Swale CCTV control room based at Swale House, in Sittingbourne, plus the introduction of a new management structure.

But the report stated it would require increased investment to enable the service to be more effective and productive.

Another option was to share the service with Maidstone Borough Council at Maidstone Council offices but although it wouldn’t require an up front investment, revenue costs would increase by £22,247 and savings in year two are only estimated at £8,165.

Full council will decide whether or not to give the scheme the go-ahead next week.