WITNEY is to get more anti-crime spy cameras, and both Carterton and Chipping Norton are also in line to have their own CCTV systems.

The Gazette learned this week that nine fixed cameras are to be installed in the £50m Marriotts Close redevelopment, due to open in autumn next year.

They will monitor public areas of the shopping and entertainment complex, as well as the multi-storey car park.

The addition will bring the total of CCTV cameras in Witney to 33, joining the 24 which have already been put round the town centre over the last decade. They are linked to the 24-hour-a-day monitoring centre at the town's police station, in Welch Way.

And it also emerged this week that a deal is close to being struck to include the district's two other main towns, Carterton and Chipping Norton, under the watchful eye of the control centre.

Both towns have been keen to have CCTV for some years, but the issue has always been over who pays for them.

Bill Oddy, the district council's head of community services, said he expected that the extension of the Witney scheme to include Marriotts Close would be largely financed through businesses moving in there.

Private sponsorship is also expected to make up part of the schemes in the other two towns.

The capital costs are in the region of £130,000, which will have to come mainly out of West Oxfordshire District Council funds, because Home Office grants have dried up. Thames Valley Police is keen on the scheme, and has set aside £20,000.

The running costs are about £15,000 a year each for Carterton and Chipping Norton, mainly to pay for the rental of fibre optic cables linked to the control system at Witney police station.

Carterton town mayor, Maxine Crossland, told the Gazette: "We have always been interested in a scheme here, but Witney is a more prosperous town than us, and we had to consider the costs. We want to get the best deal possible, not to overburden the taxpayers of Carterton."

Apart from town council contributions, the net has been spread to include local businesses. Aldi, the major discount operator which wants to open a store in Alvescot Road, has been asked to contribute via a 'planning gain' section 106 agreement.

Mr Oddy added that the Midland Counties Co-op store had also been asked as a 'major stakeholder in the town.' Figures have never been released showing the successful conviction rate of people caught in suspected criminal activity by Witney's CCTV system.

But, following an annual review earlier this year, police said that since 2001 it had resulted in the arrest of more than 1,300 people for a variety of offences. There have also been instances where other emergency services have been called into quick action because of accidents seen by monitors in the control centre, which is managed 24 hours a day.

The annual running costs for Witney are about £190,000. They are shared between the district council, TVP, Witney Town Council, and local retailers.

The schemes for Carterton and Chipping Norton will at first only have four fixed cameras in each town centre.

Mr Oddy said: "We are very close to securing the finances. It has been very successful in Witney, and for some years, there have been calls to have cameras in both Carterton and Chipping Norton.

"Negotiations have been going on these past six months with not just the town councils, but local shops and businesses. Much of that is now coming to fruition.

"We carried out a feasibility study in January and February, and identified the potential locations for cameras in both towns. In essence, I would think that the deal will be signed in the next month."

Source: Witney Gazzette