THOUSANDS of applicants have clamoured to take part in reality shows like Big Brother, but residents of one South Lakeland village are feeling distinctly uneasy about an idea to turn the cameras on them, reports Jennie Dennett.

The people of Hawkshead have yet to be persuaded of the merits of a traders' plan to install eight webcams around the village in order to tempt prospective tourists with picturesque scenes on a website.

"It's too much of an invasion of privacy," said parish council clerk John Poole, reporting that councillors were at present "totally opposed" to the idea.

The scheme from the Hawkshead Traders Association is to train a number of webcam lenses on public streets and broadcast some of these on the www.hawkshead-village.co.uk site.

Other cameras' footage would be online accessible only to those with a password or kept unpublished for security as a kind of do-it-yourself CCTV system.

"It will help promote Hawkshead," argued Gary Thomason, the man behind the idea and the owner of the Minstrels' Gallery.

"It will also help the fight against vandalism and theft."

The webcam scheme was part of the traders' association' s successful bid to win a £74,000 grant to install super-fast broadband internet connection for the village.

Many villagers are already unhappy with the thought of their comings and goings being broadcast online.

"A thief in the locality could watch people' s movements.

He could see, say, 'Mrs Brown has gone to the Co-op' and then burgle her house," said Mr Poole.

Mr Thomason agreed that there were risks but stressed that the system could also enhance security and time delays could be set on the cameras so that actual scenes appeared later.

Others have raised fears for youngsters.

"I have small children," said Hawkshead mum Kate Cameron.

"You are not going to know who's watching them on the internet."

But Mr Thomason has stressed that the equipment would look only at public areas.

Traders do not need planning permission to install the web cams, but Mr Thomason insists that nothing will be done until a public meeting is held.

The date for the webcam meeting has not yet been set but the plan will be discussed at Hawkshead Parish Council on September 17.