Last town without CCTV wants cameras

The last market town on the M4 corridor without CCTV is to look again at installing cameras.

Previously described by senior police officers as a ´soft touch´ and a ´sitting duck´ for criminal gangs, Marlborough´s Chamber of Commerce decided to look again at CCTV following a spate of crime in the lead-up to Christmas - including a £30,000 raid at The Perfumery in High Street - twinned with the ever-decreasing cost of hardware.

A round-table meeting with police and town councillors was held last week to find a way forward.

Town community beat manager Stan Boardman and special constable Mike Tuckman outlined their concerns and gave details of the CCTV operations in other towns, in particular Wootton Bassett, where PC Tuckman helped introduce CCTV 16 years ago.

According to police figures there were 50 incidents of shoplifting and theft in Marlborough since September, but the police believe the total figure is likely to be double as too many cases go unreported by retailers.

A proposed £3,000 recording only system was dismissed, and the meeting heard that the town would need to invest tens of thousands of pounds in the system, and prepare for ongoing running costs of thousands of pounds a year.

The meeting heard that six cameras would cover Britain´s widest High Street, providing high-quality real-time monitoring and recording. A small army of volunteers led by a paid manager would be required for the system to work, as would a control from which to monitor the system.

There would be no chance, said police, of officers or police civilian staff manning the system, either at Marlborough police station or divisional HQ at Devizes.

Meanwhile, Councillor Richard Pitts, who represents the town council at Chamber of Commerce meetings, is preparing his own report on likely costs and how a CCTV system would operate.

He believes the capital cost could be covered if CCTV became part of the Marlborough town hall improvement project and that the system could be operated from the town hall itself.

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