A MOBILE police CCTV camera will shortly be located on the junction of Station Road, Haynes Road and West End.
The camera will be used during a trial period to evaluate whether a permanent camera should be installed in the position.
The town council’s general purposes committee had debated the option of installing a new camera straight away, but at a meeting on Monday 7th December decided it would be prudent to have a trial run first.
The cost of installing a brand new camera at the spot would have been £10,000.
Problems with anti-social behaviour in that part of town recently became one of the Neighbourhood Policing Team’s priorities. Although there is already a CCTV camera covering the Market Place, the view does not extend very far down West End.
PC Jo Philpott, Westbury town beat manager, said, “I have applied for a temporary roaming camera that will be located at the Station Road, West End junction. I particularly want it to be located there over the Christmas and New Year period. The advantage of a roaming camera is that if we find we are having problems elsewhere, it can be relocated.”
The police camera is not a permanent addition to the town, but PC Philpott can keep reapplying for it to be stationed in Westbury.
Westbury Town Council general purposes committee chairman, cllr Stephen Andrews said, “The police have offered us the use of their mobile camera, but it won’t be permanent. We will use it on a trial to prove if a permanent camera is needed, and where exactly to site it. ”
The issue of anti-social behaviour along the West End had been raised by a number of local residents at the last area board meeting in September, who claimed it was a persistent nuisance.
However a recent attempt to collect data from local residents received a poor response. Log sheets were distributed to 135 homes in the area, to be completed and handed in to the police station. Only seven replies were returned, and only three of these contained useful information.
Cllr Mike Hawkins, who chairs the Westbury Community Safety Group said, “There may be a problem there but at the moment we only have anecdotal evidence for it.
“The mobile camera gives us the chance to see if a real problem does exist that is substantial enough to warrant increasing the CCTV coverage of Westbury.
“It wouldn’t be proper of us to spend that sort of money on a camera without strong evidence of a problem first. Using the mobile camera first is financial common sense. It would be remiss of us to spend £10,000 until that evidence is there.”
If a new camera is installed on the junction it would become Westbury’s seventh CCTV camera.
