IMPROVED street lighting could be a better crime deterrent than CCTV, Devizes Town Council was told at a recent meeting.

Kevin James, Kennet District Council's representative on the Kennet Community Safety Partnership, told the town council fewer CCTV systems would be installed in places in the future.

Mr James said: "There's an awful lot of research going on and it's indicating actual reductions in crime where CCTV is present ranges from two to four per cent.

"Improved lighting is a better deterrent than CCTV.

"I would like to see authorities responsible for providing lighting to identify areas which need improved lighting and to look at ways of achieving that through bids to the district council and the county council."

Mr James said Kennet Community Safety Partnership was unable to bid for Government money to install a CCTV system for Kennet because the deadline for bids was brought forward.

No more Government money is available for CCTV schemes and the district council, the county council and the police do not have the money to pay for a system.

Coun Charles Winchcombe said: "Street lighting is perhaps a more cost effective deterrent than CCTV, although it's probably good to have CCTV for detection purposes."

Coun Ray Parsons was concerned that, without a CCTV system, crime in Devizes could increase .

He said: "We are the only town in Wiltshire that doesn't have CCTV. My concern is that in three to five years time, Devizes could be the honeypot for crime because we have no protection."

Mr James said the partnership carried out consultation on the merits of CCTV but received a poor response from people in Devizes.

Devizes Town Council refused to carry out the survey on behalf of the partnership because members believed the wording of the survey was biased, as it specified how much extra running a CCTV system would cost council tax payers.

Councillor Tim Price said consultation should be looked at again and done in a different way

But Mr James said he did not know what other form of consultation the partnership could do.