DEVIZES Development Partnership is looking to relaunch the town's Shopwatch scheme as part of its campaign to address crime and anti-social behaviour in the town centre.

Town centre manager Janet Duffield is in discussion with Shopwatch Services Ltd, which offers a more high-tech service than the cascade system, where messages about potential troublemakers are passed from shop to shop. It is claimed it is only as strong as its weakest link.

Mrs Duffield said: "With this new system, the same message is texted to everyone in the scheme at exactly the same time. Everyone has a mobile phone these days, so that makes it much simpler.

"It also means that we can link in with other towns in the scheme."

Mrs Duffield will shortly be approaching traders to recruit them for the scheme.

DDP is already looking into setting up a long-awaited CCTV system in the centre of the town. At a recent public meeting, chairman Peter Lay said he had been given a mandate to look into the viability and funding of the scheme and he hopes to be able to go to the town council and other possible funding bodies with costings for it early in the new year.