THE chair of the recently formed Melksham CCTV group, Adrienne Westbrook, says she is very disappointed that Melksham Area Board did not support the group’s grant application for match funding on the next phase of the project.
The Melksham CCTV group consists of Melksham Town and Melksham Without councillors as well as Wiltshire Police Melksham Pub Watch and interested residents. There is also a place for a Wiltshire Council member of the Melksham Area Board.
Chair of the group Adrienne Westbrook said, “They took the decision to delay looking at the project until June, causing a possible delay to the next stage of work.”
She added that she was “very disappointed with the delaying tactics of the Area Board, who had previously called for the Town Council to look into CCTV issues as soon as possible due to the increased incidents all around the area.”
She explained, “It seems their words last year were just rhetoric and has not been matched by any funding. Jonathan Seed asked for the delay, although his reasons were not really clear.”
The money was needed to carry out a full survey of what is currently available in the area and how easily this can be accessed by the police.
Adrienne said, “It’s a relatively straight forward piece of work. Once we have the answers to this, then we can move on to putting together a spec for upgrading the system, as well as bringing in new areas. BRAG in Bowerhill and Hornchurch Playing Fields have been mentioned as possible areas, as well as the skateboard park in KGV [Melksham park].
Adrienne explained that the last survey was carried out in 2009, which she described in IT terms as being “in the dinosaur era.” She said, “The capability of security systems has improved since then and the group had been hoping to work on a fully costed funding bid by the summer of 2021.
“However, without this preliminary work being carried out first, it will sadly lead to an delay. The group will discuss the way forward at their next meeting on February 17th.”
If you wish to attend and be part of the group details are available by emailing the Town Hall at clerk@melkshamtown.co.uk
