A STATE-of-the-art £50,000 CCTV control room will be created to tackle crime against retailers.

Home Office minister Alan Campbell visited Leytonstone yesterday to meet business owners and congratulate the E11 Business Improvement District (BID), which was one of only four consortiums in London to be awarded £50,000 from the Small Retailers Grants Fund.

The new equipment will be installed in a control room in Leytonstone Library in Church Street and will have cameras with a six-mile radius.

It will have facial and automatic number plate recognition technology.

The minister met with chairman of E11 BID, Fawad Shaihk and Waltham Forest councillors, and visited high street businesses.

He said: “This is about helping small businesses to secure their properties against the background of the recession.

“I am hugely impressed by the partnership in this area, which is bringing together the council and police in order to secure the economic future of Leytonstone, but also to keep the public safe. Small businesses are the economic backbone and part of the substance of the community.”

Mr Shaihk told the minister that 95 per cent of businesses involved in the E11 BID voted for more CCTV cameras as their main concern.

He said afterwards: “It’s great that we’ve been given this money. It’s a testament to the strong partnership between us, the council and the Home Office that our bid was successful.

“This is a project that never would have happened without that and the businesses have supported us 100 per cent. It’s so crucial for a town centre and its retailers to feel secure and this project will help us do that.”

The £5 million Small Retailers Grants Fund, which was launched yesterday, is allocating £3,000 grants for small businesses to tackle crime and £50,000 for group bids.

The fund is part of the Retail Crime Action Plan (RCAP), which sets out a broad range of actions to tackle crimes against retailers and small businesses.