THE anti-social thug from Bewdley featured on the front page of the Shuttle/Times and News on September 25 is of a type dealt with daily in Kidderminster where we have had a privately-run Radio Link for 20 years, and privately-run and owned CCTV system covering the town centre.
The Radio Link is now operated in conjunction with the Swan Centre CCTV system and effectively keeps a lid on anti-social behaviour in the town.
There are other privately-funded CCTV systems which are used in parallel with the Swan Centre security.
Over the years we have begged the district council to help fund CCTV in the town centre, but the funding allocated to this council has been systematically wasted on "problem estates".
Look for those systems today and you will find they have either been vandalised or stolen.
The Swan Centre security set-up is privately funded and very successful. However, more cameras are needed and I have heard that the additional seven cameras needed to cover all the "hot spots" could be obtained for half the £130,000 quoted for the new system referred to in the September 25 issue of the Shuttle/Times & News.
Why should the nightclubs be on the list to have cameras, and have priority over Exchange Street, Green Street, Comberton Hill and Crossley Park, which are not covered by the existing CCTV?
Why don't the nightclubs (whose customers cause more grief than most in the town) fund their own cameras?
Members of the Radio Link and Kidderminster Retail Initiative and Safety Programme (KRISP) have been unsuccessful in getting funding from the district council to get the Swan Centre scheme improved, only to find that £130,000 is to be spent on a scheme which will be centred at Bromsgrove.
I fear for the future and the safety of shoppers in Kidderminster if this scheme goes ahead.
Do the "bobbies" in Bromsgrove know all our local villains better than the staff in the Swan Centre security set-up?
Does the "man in the street" appreciate the problems caused by thieves and vandals in Kidderminster town centre on a typical day? Are they aware of the Radio Link and CCTV (privately funded) which works with our police and looks over them?
BILL CROOK
Vice chairman KRISP and Radio Link
Lion Street
Kidderminster
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