NSW's Shoalhaven City Council has spent more than $25,000 in a legal battle with a man who wants it to remove 18 security cameras from Nowra's central business district.

Former resident Adam Bonner took the matter to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal last week.

Under scrutiny ... closed-circuit TV. Credit:Andy Zakeli

Mr Bonner opposes closed-circuit TV in public places because "I don't believe the state has the right to record and transfer my image to the police. It makes me feel uncomfortable. The police don't have my fingerprints, so why should they have my image?"

He points to a British Home Office review of 22 studies from Britain and the US that found CCTV "had little or no effect on crime in public transport and city centre settings".