AN open day was held at the CCTV offices in Warminster Civic Centre on Wednesday (September 28) where local businesses were invited to see how it operates in the town.

Councillor Paul Macdonald, chairman of the CCTV working group and David Deacon, who has been a member of the group group since it started, told visitors about the advances of CCTV and the importance it serves in the town.

Cllr Macdonald said: “The town council felt it would be a good idea to showcase to local businesses how far CCTV has developed and encourage them to join Shopwatch or Pubwatch.”

Residents and business owners were impressed with the facilities, including Warminster estate agent Melvin Davis.

He said: “I think the facilities are first class and provide the peace of mind that day-to-day life in the town is that little bit more secure and any issues that might arise can be handled swiftly and effectively.

“I have to say that since my previous visit there has been substantial investment to provide the state-of-the-art cameras and equipment now covering a huge swathe of the town. This should prove reassuring to local people as they go about their daily business.”

The original idea for installing a CCTV system in Warminster stemmed from a Government initiative in 1996 which encouraged town centres to install systems and offered partial funding from the Home Office to tackle anti-social behaviour.

The cost of installation was £135,000 for nine external cameras before Warminster Town Council was successful with another bid and three more cameras were installed to cover the town park area

In 2004 a new camera was installed in Emwell Street which meant that all entrances into the town centre are now covered.

Following that, Warminster Town Council was successful with another bid and three additional cameras in the town to cover the park.

The next area to be tackled was the Park. New lighting was needed as well as cameras and the old West Wilts District Council paid for this and continued to pay for the line rental on the installed camera.

George Witts stayed in post until his untimely death in 2005. The equipment had not yet been installed, but George had the task of putting together the first operations manuals, codes of conduct and advertised for volunteers. Historically volunteers have played a great part in the running of CCTV, but over the last few years we have changed considerably the work that is required on a day-to-day basis and the volunteers are now highly trained to deal with all aspects of monitoring and auditing. We are always grateful to those that volunteer and in addition we have paid monitoring staff who cover a wide variety of shifts.

In 1999 a second initiative followed the success of the first Home Office campaign with more funding for car parks which were suffering from anti-social behaviour. Warminster Town Council was successful with another bid and three additional cameras went into the town. The next area to be tackled was the Park. New lighting was needed as well as cameras and the old West Wilts District Council paid for this and continued to pay for the line rental on the installed camera. Wiltshire Council now pays this rental.