New site needed for transmitter

A SUITABLE site is today being desperately sought for a transmitter which will enable Felixstowe's CCTV project to proceed.

It had been hoped to put the equipment on the top of the Palace cinema and bingo centre.

Organisers of the £36,000 crime-busting closed-circuit cameras scheme understood they would be able to place the transmitter on the roof for free - but owner Patrick Duffy is now demanding more than £4,000 rent a year.

Doreen Savage, chairman of the CCTV task group, said it meant a new site had to be found.

“We need a tall building in the town centre which has a direct sight line to the police station so that the signals can be transmitted,” she said.

“We were very disappointed that we could not use the Palace but we do not have a budget for an annual site rent and we were hoping the community would work together on this project.

“Now we need to find a new site and there are a number of possibilities we are looking at.

“Each has to be investigated to see if it is suitable and then negotiations have to take place with the owners and sadly these are not quick procedures because everything has to be done correctly.”

It had been thought another suitable site had been identified but the property owner was concerned about the nature of the transmitting equipment and whether there would be any electrical emissions.

The Evening Star is backing the town's bid for CCTV and urging everyone to work together to provide it as soon as possible to give greater protection to the town centre.

Mrs Savage has said that with so many towns in Suffolk now having cameras, it has left Felixstowe a “soft touch” for criminals.

The government has already awarded the town £36,000 funding for a four-camera system.

Will CCTV make Felixstowe safer? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk