West Lothian Council was awarded £35,000 for CCTV improvements in the latest round of Town Centre Regeneration Fund grants, but many locals say upgrading the hardwear without putting 24-7 monitoring in place is a waste of cash.
And there's even so
me doubt whether the CCTV has led to many criminal convictions.
Members of the Town Centre Management Meeting group heard on Wednesday that the council was now considering diverting the money for safer neighbourhoods into two projects – the cold calling control zone, to protect vulnerable householders from rogue traders, and to a radio link between the local shops and businesses. But the council want to hear from local firms and interested groups about what they think before making a final decision.
A West Lothian Council spokesperson said: "We are looking at the best way of promoting security and safety in the town centre and current thinking is that investment in the CCTV doesn't provide the best answer. We are looking with the relevant stakeholders, including the police, businesses and town centre users including young people to find the most effective solution to improving community safety in the town centre.
"We are keen to learn from other towns how they are going about this. Radio Link is one method being used effectively elsewhere and is one of the options being given due consideration."
At Wednesday's meeting no-one gave their backing to upgrading the CCTV hardwear in the present budget, but they did ask for proper costings to be done for a fuller scheme, including sub-contracting to a private firm for monitoring.
And Ian Gibson, a member of Pubwatch, said his members weren't convinced that the radio link system would work, as there could be dead-spots in the town, however, he didn't think it was right to spend the cash on the CCTV system.
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