THE base for a £1.3million scheme to boost crime prevention is still to be chosen.

Renfrewshire Council is planning to replace its existing CCTV provision, and will be upgrading systems which focus on the town centres of Paisley, Johnstone and Renfrew.

There will also be scope for the system to expand to take in towns and villages across the area. A new control room is planned but its location is yet to be decided.

Community safety chiefs are considering using either the council HQ at Renfrewshire House in Paisley, or the former District Court building in the town's Mill Street, which is the council's preferred location.

At an update meeting, councillors considered a report which noted: "The project remains on target to deliver an Integrated Control Room and CCTV system to replace the current outdated system by the end of March 2014."

The report also says that negotiations on the preferred location for a so-called "CCTV and community safety hub," in the former District Court building, had been delayed because the building is owned by Police Scotland, which came into operation in April.

The report added: "Two potential locations have been identified for the new Integrated Control Room, namely Renfrew-shire House and the former District Court building in Mill Street, Paisley, as owned by Police Scotland.

"Finalising the preferred location for the Integrated Control Room can be progressed now that Police Scotland is established.

"The District Court building is the preferred location and it also provides the potential to accommodate the Community Safety Hub. Further discussions with Police Scotland will be undertaken to determine if the use of the former District Court is viable in the timescales of the council's CCTV project."

Before the meeting of the council's Housing and Community Safety Board, opposition SNP councillors had raised concerns about how long the upgrade process was taking.

But Councillor Tommy Williams, Labour's housing and community safety convener, said: "Renfrewshire's new CCTV hub is on time, on budget and will deliver a significant boost to the existing community safety approach in Paisley, Johnstone and Renfrew.

"There's no question of any delay – the agreed start date is exactly the same as was set at the start of the programme under the previous council.

"That timescale has been publicly approved by several council policy boards over recent years.

"We are completing a detailed technical evaluation and will then move to tendering for the contract."

ewan.fergus@eveningtimes.co.uk