Residents have been told that new CCTV cameras which cost nearly £400,000 will only be used to solve serious crimes.

Police say they do not have the manpower to trawl through hours of footage to identify minor offenders unless an exact time of the crime is known.

The announcement was made after a resident on the Moulsecoomb estate in Brighton complained to us that she had been the victim of a crime which could not be solved despite the cameras being just yards from her home.

The woman, who lives in Ringmer Drive, Moulsecoomb, said thieves walked into her garden and stole an illuminated Santa, a snowman decoration and other festive garden lights.

She called police but was told that officers did not have the manpower the scour hours of CCTV footage to identify the thieves.

The woman, who does not want to be named, found the garden decorations dumped in an alleyway nearby the following day. The Santa has since been stolen again.

The victim said the estate's wardens should be allowed to scour through the footage and identify the culprits.

She said: "Criminals should be made to know that they are being watched. I know it's not the crime of the century but it's antisocial behaviour."

Almost £400,000 was spent on the six cameras on the North Moulsecoomb estate in Brighton, which were officially switched on Friday December 13.

They were paid for by eb4u (East Brighton For You), a government scheme to regenerate the area, the Home Office and Brighton and Hove City Council.

A survey conducted on the estate showed 95 per cent of residents overwhelmingly supported cameras.

Sussex Police say the estate's community wardens have other duties to attend to on the estate and reassured residents that they would examine the footage if a major crime had been committed.

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: "We have got CCTV in Moulsecoomb and the majority of the residents wanted it and it's very positive that we have it.

"Due to the configurations of the CCTV cameras, if we have not got an exact time an offence occurred we have to justify a police officer sitting through 24 hours of video tape.

"They will do that for very serious offences like rape, murder or armed robbery and we will keep an eye on youth problems in the area."