Marlborough, the only market town in Wiltshire without its own CCTV system, is to consider the introduction of a start-up scheme of four high quality digital cameras to cover the High Street at an initial cost of £20,000.
A report promised last October, which was presented to the Town Council on Monday, revealed that the council has had the subject on its agenda for 11 years but that the crime rate in Marlborough has always been historically low.
It revealed that in Salisbury the manned CCTV system cost £60,000 a year to run while other towns relied on an army of volunteers to monitor their CCTV system to keep down costs but still faced rent and rates on a property from which to manage the system.
“Obviously Marlborough cannot run such a system because it would mean a huge hike in the council’s precept, which of course none of us want,” Councillor Noel Barrett-Morton told councillors.
“So we seek a system that will give us high definition pictures that the police need. It is possible to install a start-up scheme with just four cameras in the High Street. This small but quality system could be added to as and when finance becomes available and give the council reasonable flexibility.”
“Camera pictures could be beamed into the council offices and, with Home Office approval, picked up on computers at the police station, where they can monitor the situation.”
Now a working party considering the implementation of CCTV is to provide a detailed report at next month’s full council meeting.
Police Inspector Ron Peach, who attended the meeting, supported the need for a CCTV system, pointing out: “It has to be of high quality with pictures produced being available for use as evidence we can proceed on”.
“It is well documented the deterrent effect that CCTV has in reducing crime and social disorder for fear of being caught and also the evidence of culpability after the event.”
However, as the Mayor, Councillor Edwina Fogg, interjected, there was a need too for a “big debate” on the concept of CCTV, emotional counter arguments existing on what others have described as a “Big Brother” approach.
“There is a whole debate going on out there about the absolute case for a CCTV system. I think we really have got to look into this in far greater detail.”
The report, written by Tory Councillor Marion Hannaford-Dobson, who set up the working party of three councillors, referred in particular to outside gangs of thieves and pickpockets had identified Marlborough as a vulnerable town.”
“Residential, commercial burglary and theft from trade vans are far easier because Marlborough has no records of vehicles entering or leaving the town,” said the report.
“There is evidence of travelling shoplifting and pickpocket gangs from London, Bristol, Manchester, some even from much further afield. These unwanted visitors then pass on information to other shoplifting and pickpocket colleagues exactly which communities are not protected by CCTV.”
Waitrose, which is Marlborough’s biggest business and has its own internal CCTV, introduced security guards in May after its wine and spirits section in particular was hit by shoplifters.
“There has been a significant reduction in thefts since then,” manager Richard Clare told Marlborough News Online. “Criminals do become aware that we are much better protected.”
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