Glasgow City Council has moved to reassure Govanhill residents that new state-of-art CCTV cameras won’t spy through the windows of tenement flats.

The south side community will be under 24-hour surveillance from September when the high-tech equipment is switched on.

Victoria Road, Alison Street, Calder Street, Dixon Avenue, Annette Street, Garturk Street, Langside Road and Westmoreland Street will be monitored.

Footage will be viewed by police and employees of Community Safety Glasgow, the council’s arms-length organisation which tackles crime.

A council spokeswoman insisted that staff will use discretionary filters when “privacy issues are identified”.

She said: “The public can be reassured that public space CCTV is already subject to a raft of legislation, regulation and audits to ensure the cameras are used to monitor public spaces.

“Where privacy issues are identified, a privacy filter can be applied using digital technology. This involves blocking the view of the area from the camera/operator, for example, a camera directly facing or in close proximity to a window.”

The spokeswoman added: “Generally, however, cameras tend to reflect off windows – unable to capture what is happening beyond.”

Meanwhile, an online petition has been launched by campaign group ‘Let’s Save Govanhill’ which claims “the streets are no longer a safe place to walk”.

The group has called on Police Scotland to “make the streets of Govanhill safer, treat all residents the same and stop gangs of men standing in corners and intimidating our pensioners and other residents.”

Hundreds of people have signed including pensioner Mary Mclaughlin who wrote: “I no longer feel comfortable shopping and have not left the house after dark for months.”

Yvonne Clow, who also signed, said: “I live in Govanhill and feel very intimidated. I also have four kids that I worry about every time they step out the door even just to go to school.”

Maria Armour added: “I’ve lived here all my life and the decline in recent years is terrible - residents are living in fear.”

The Let’s Save Govanhill group is also planning another march, this time from Govanhill Park to Aikenhead Road police station on August 1 at 1pm.

They have previously marched to local MSP and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency office.

More than 150 people attended a public meeting last week, organised by the group.

Chief Inspector Carol McGuire, Area Commander for Glasgow South East said today: “We are aware of concerns being raised by local people and I would like to assure them that we are working hard to address these.

“We work closely with partner agencies, such as, Community Safety Glasgow, Govanhill Housing Association and Glasgow City Council in our efforts to make the streets safer for everyone.

“We know that crime and antisocial behaviour can impact negatively on local communities and we use several tactics to combat these issues, such as high visibility patrols and targeting known offenders.

“We are committed to keeping people safe and continue to work with our partner agencies to ensure we are providing the most effective service to local people - they can be assured that we will do all we can to make life better for everyone.”

The petition can be found at change.org.