The number of police cameras keeping an eye on Sussex has broken the 300 mark but the county remains one of the least watched in England and Wales.

Thirty-one towns in Sussex now have cameras, the latest additions being Petworth with four and Rustington, near Littlehampton, with one.

There are now 318 cameras but Richard Hoare, Sussex Police's CCTV manager, said: "We come somewhere near to the bottom of the per capita league table for England and Wales.

"Birmingham, for instance, has about the same number as we do just in its city centre."

Sussex was one of the first counties to introduce cameras and Mr Hoare believes numbers have been kept down by the force keeping a tight grip on their operation and on purse strings.

The latest cameras have been funded by district councils but they are operated by the police.

Mr Hoare said other counties had cameras run by police and local authorities and there was less control on numbers.

In a report to the Sussex Police Authority tomorrow, Chief Constable Ken Jones will tell how CCTV operators detected crimes which resulted in the arrest of 1,605 offenders during the year ending last month.

The total included 500 for street violence and 173 for car crimes.

Almost 45,000 incidents were observed, with each CCTV operator responsible for, on average, 55 arrests.

The force also has five mobile CCTV vans and intends to expand the number later this year.

Mr Jones said local authorities were increasingly considering using the cameras for non-policing purposes, such as licensing enforcement at clubs and pubs.

He said: "Crawley Borough Council has used its cameras for this purpose for the past two years, with some notable success, and Hastings Borough Council uses its cameras to support council parking attendants.

"To help facilitate the broader use of cameras a regional CCTV user group has been formed."

The cameras are located in: Brighton (36), Hove (15), Battle (three), Bexhill and Sidley (nine), Bognor (12), Bosham (one), Burgess Hill (seven), Chichester (48), Crawley (34), Crowborough (four), East Grinstead (12), Eastbourne (15), Hailsham (seven), Hastings (27), Haywards Heath (five), Horsham (38), Lancing (one), Lewes (three), Littlehampton (five), Midhurst (eight), Newhaven (four), Petworth (four), Polegate (two), Rustington (one), Seaford (seven), Selsey (five), Shoreham (two), Southwick (one), Steyning (one) and Worthing (16).