The council has moved to reassure people using its car parks after a woman was mugged close to CCTV cameras which were not working.

Sarah Woods was targeted on January 3 in the car park in Lower Queens Road in Buckhurst Hill on her way home from work.

Despite being shaken Miss Woods was hopeful that the offenders would be caught due to the CCTV in the car park.

She was outraged when she found out that it was out of order.

Today, the council has said that the problem was “temporary”.

A spokeswoman said: “We would like to reassure everyone that the CCTV cameras are working.

“We experienced a temporary problem with the recording equipment which means that we don’t have footage of the incident on 3 January in Buckhurst Hill.

“However, we can assure people that with interim arrangements in place we are continuing to operate CCTV cameras and are confident that a re-occurrence of the issue should not arise.”