GAZETTE & HERALD: Hopes for extra funding from North Wiltshire District Council to run Chippenham's cash-strapped CCTV system are likely to be dashed.

Chippenham's 30-camera CCTV system will be left unmanned from September because Chippenham Town Council says it can't afford to run it.

Now a report, compiled by officers at North Wiltshire District Council to its Executive committee, recommends members formalise a policy not to help with the running costs of any town CCTV system. Members will discuss the report and make a decision today.

Town and district councillor Ross Henning said: "The district has never said it would help with revenue costs for CCTV. The question was asked, and now we are seeking to consolidate the policy."

The topic hit the headlines when the town council announced it would save £85,000 funding for town centre CCTV by removing three members of staff, employed by a private security company, who currently monitor the cameras.

This means police and emergency services will not be alerted immediately when cameras record an incident.

But district council leader Coun Ruth Coleman has urged the town council to look at other options.

"We gave them a capital grant to help set up the scheme but we made it quite clear in the beginning, just as we did to Wootton Bassett and other towns, that we wouldn't provide funds for running it," she said.

Coun Coleman said Chippenham runs a fully manned system, which is the most expensive and suggested there are other ways to organise it.

"Wootton Bassett has a supervisor and a team of volunteers who just cover the evenings when there is the greatest potential need," she said. "Chippenham could look for other partnerships.

"If the monitoring is reduced the cameras will still be there and of there is an incident the police will be able to view the film. It's not as though the town will be left undefended."

Around 95 per cent of the town centre is covered by CCTV, with surveillance stretching from the Causeway to the Hathaway Retail Park.

Police estimate crime has dropped by 58 per cent in the town centre since the cameras were introduced in 1999 at a cost of £110,000.

Sergeant Mark Gale of Chippenham police said: "CCTV is one of the fundamental crime fighting tools within the town centre and it would be a shame to lose our close links with the staff who run the CCTV, who provide us with vital on the spot information when crimes are in progress.

"Without the cameras being monitored, offenders will be free to roam and the likelihood is that our ability to gather information for prosecutions will be diminished. I don't think crime will increase, but it would reduce our ability to detect crime."

Coun Henning admitted the town council would be left in a difficult situation if the district council would not contribute to the running costs but believed other avenues could be explored. He called for the whole issue to be evaluated by the Community Safety Partnership.

"This has to be a partnership effort. It can't be supported by one organisation," he said.

The report reccomends members of the Executive continue supporting the setting up costs of CCTV from the relevant area committee capital community fund.

But officers fear that providing funding for one town's CCTV running costs will set a precedent for other towns to ask for money too.

Town council leader Coun Sandie Webb is refusing to speak to the Gazette because of its coverage of the issue.

A 2003 Crime Concern report states the CCTV running costs amounted to about seven per cent of Chippenham Town Council's budget and indicated the service provided value for money.

ssingleton@newswilts.co.uk