Concerns have been raised about the use of CCTV after it emerged that more than 1,000 security cameras are active in Sussex.

Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch found there were 1,317 council-controlled cameras in the county - almost one for every thousand people - on top of the hundreds of cameras used by private companies.

The highest concentration of cameras was in Hastings, with 91 watching the public and a further eight used in council buildings, equivalent to about 1.2 cameras per 1,000 residents.

The authority controlling the largest number of cameras was West Sussex County Council, with 570, while the area with the smallest CCTV presence was Lewes, where the district council operated just six cameras.

Meanwhile, Brighton and Hove City Council operated 59, which works out at just 0.2 cameras per 1,000 residents.

The scale of CCTV use by local authorities was uncovered by Big Brother Watch, an off-shoot of the TaxPayers' Alliance, using the Freedom of Information Act.

Its study, entitled Big Brother Is Watching, found that 418 local authorities control 59,753 cameras - almost three times the 21,000 counted in a similar study ten years ago. It said Britain was one of the most watched countries in the world.