A PROJECT to provide crime-busting closed-circuit TV cameras in Felixstowe is today back up and running again - thanks to a site being found for a transmitter.

Richard Cornwell

A PROJECT to provide crime-busting closed-circuit TV cameras in Felixstowe is today back up and running again - thanks to a site being found for a transmitter.

But there is concern that the cameras will not help those the system was intended to protect when the funding was given.

Organisers of the scheme have been seeking a suitable site for the equipment and needed to find somewhere which would have a direct sight-line to the police station to enable signals to be transmitted to the base unit.

Doreen Savage, chairman of the CCTV working party, said a lamp-post outside the Beijing restaurant in Hamilton Road had been identified to take the transmitter, though a new lamp-post would have to be provided because of its condition and to ensure it could take the equipment.

“There is a direct sight-line and it means we can now press ahead with the project - it is very good news,” she said.

The town council has agreed to give £1,000 towards the lamp-post.

Councillor Mike Ninnmey though believed traders should be paying for it as the cameras will be protecting their businesses.

He said the £36,000 funding for a four-camera system had been obtained from the Home Office under false pretences.

The bid for the money had said the CCTV system would feature mobile cameras which could be moved from crime hotspot to hotspot and would be especially to deal with vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the south, west and north wards.

“It was never intended for the town centre and yet now we do not have a mobile system and the cameras will be protecting shops and businesses, looking after retail interests and not the people it was intended for,” said Mr Ninnmey.

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