CROOKS are focusing their attention on towns like Marlborough because without CCTV cameras they are seen as easy pickings.

Police admit that the lack of security cameras in Marlborough is an open invitation to crooks.

Instead of running the risk of being picked up by closed circuit TV cameras in other towns, thieves and conmen head for places like Marlborough where their activities go unrecorded.

On Monday the town's police commander, Insp Bill Dowling, told the town council: "We see a difference here in Marlborough because Hungerford has got CCTV."

Police are admitting that the absence of cameras in Marlborough does encourage criminals.

Coinciding with the second anniversary of Kennet District Council controversially dropping a bid for Government cash for CCTV, police Chief Supterintendent Jerry Wickham, the commander of the Wiltshire police Salisbury Division that covers the Kennet area, attended Marlborough Town Council on Monday.

He was accompanied by Insp Dowling who has spoken in the past about the advantages of communities having closed circuit camera systems.

Two years ago the Government gave local authorities a unique opportunity to obtain set-up funding for CCTV schemes.

Councils were invited to bid for Government cash to set up local schemes.

They were given a deadline of December 22, 2001 to submit their bids.

However, just hours before the deadline expired, senior Kennet officers and Salisbury divisional police officers pulled out.

They said the Government's deadline did not "allow sufficient time to carry out a full feasibility study and consult Kennet residents and the business sector."

The names of the council and police officers who made the decision to pull the plug were never given.

The Kennet Community Safety Partnership said it was still committed to exploring the scheme, adding it would be unwise to proceed "before a full study has been undertaken".

It was estimated that the annual running costs of a CCTV scheme for the five principal communities in Kennet Marlborough, Devizes, Pewsey, Tidworth and Ludgershall would be about £250,000 a year, the equivalent of an £8 council tax increase for every home in the district.

Other districts in Wiltshire have installed CCTV in their town centres. Towns in neighbouring counties, like Hungerford, have cameras monitoring the town centres, shopping precincts and car parks.

On Monday Ch Supt Wickham who was not involved in the controversial decision two years ago to withdraw Kennet's bid for a Government CCTV grant told the town council on Monday there was no doubt about the effectiveness of CCTV schemes.

He said: "We are sold on the fact that CCTV is a deterrent."

Ideal systems, like the one in Salisbury, provided round-the-clock monitoring, said the chief superintendant.

He added: "We (in Kennet) are a long way from that but it is something we should all aspire to achieve."

Insp Dowling agreed. "I am fully for it and we do see the difference here in Marlborough because Hungerford has got CCTV," he said.

Marlborough Town Council has remained committed to supporting CCTV in the town and has even incorporated a room for a control centre in one scheme to redevelop old garages behind its High Street offices.

nkerton@newswilts.co.uk