CALNE Town Council has taken a big step in its fight against crime with its decision to install a temporary manned CCTV monitoring station.

The town centre has recently been the victim of a spate of attacks from vandals, which have resulted in smashed windows, graffiti on walls and overturned planters.

The town's CCTV cameras already record 24 hours a day, but the council is optimistic the station, which will initially be manned on Friday and Saturday nights, will act as a significant deterrent to crime in the centre.

The council's community development officer Mark Wilkins said: "The system that we have has been recording for a long time, but having it monitored will help identify problems a lot quicker," he said.

"It will only take one or two prosecutions and then word will get around and I think that will have a big impact on crime in the town centre."

He added that members of the town's Crime Prevention Panel have already expressed an interest in volunteering to man the station, which will be installed temporarily in the council's offices, in Bank House.

He said he hoped the final cameras in the town's CCTV network and the monitoring station will be ready for action by mid-April.

The town council already had some monitoring equipment which came with the initial CCTV cameras it purchased.

At the end of January it won a bid for £2,500 from the Communities Against Drugs Fund. The council has used the money to buy a control matrix, which makes the town's CCTV camera system easier to control, more responsive and expandable, should the council decide to add more monitors.

The council has also successfully bid for money from the Home Office Crime Reduction Programme. The cash will allow the council to set up three additional cameras in Phelps Parade and the top of High Street, which when combined with its other cameras will provide blanket coverage of the town centre.

The council agreed to set up a permanent monitoring station in the Carnegie Hall. But because the building is undergoing major renovation during the next 12 months, the council's planning and economic regeneration committee agreed to set up the temporary station.

Calne Mayor Elizabeth Hitchens said: "The people who carry out these petty crimes are just mindless. They don't seem to be proud of their town at all, they just want to destroy it. I think the temporary monitoring station is a step in the right direction."