CCTV Watch has an eye on Mill Street

A SURVEILLANCE scheme for Mill Street has moved a step closer.

CCTV Watch is proposing the scheme and a drop-in meeting held recently at the Snack Time Internet Cafe for shop owners and interested parties received a positive reaction with Chris Bullock, a partner in CCTV Watch, estimating around a fifth of area traders turned up to express support.

'The meeting was arranged to gauge interest and to get contact details off people,' said Mr Bullock. 'People were saying that as long as other people were going to sign up, they would too.'

The idea of implementing a surveillance scheme came about after some shop owners in Mill Street approached CCTV Watch to see if there was anything it could do after incidents in the area such as smashed windows, break-ins and assaults.

Mr Bullock said CCTV Watch would make the investment of installing the infrastructure, with shop owners subscribing and paying rent for the coverage and protection the four high-tech individual units would provide.

The cameras, which look like teardrop lamps, would cover the whole street as they offer 180-degree vision, unlike some of the the ones in the High Street, for example, which can look in only one direction.