BETWEEN 1996 and 1999 much effort was put into trying to establish a CCTV scheme for Kidderminster town centre. Interested parties were West Mercia Police, the district council, local retailers/shopping centres, Kidderminster Town Centre Partnership and KRISP (Kidderminster Radio Link).

All of these efforts failed because of lack of commitment to funding by Wyre Forest District Council.

And any argument that the current council cannot be held responsible does not take into account that we still have a high percentage of the same councillors, only under different political banners.

Throughout there has been one force determined to see CCTV come to Kidderminster - that is KRISP, which has developed into an association of 70 members of town centre retailers and businesses.

At no time have we had the support of the local licensees of the "night time economy".

In 2000 KRISP proposed paying for a small system of four cameras to complement the existing ones provided by the Swan Centre.

At this stage we were asked to put the scheme on temporary hold, as some funding was being made available for the basic capital cost of the cameras in the four positions then recommended by KRISP and West Mercia Police.

This money was donated by Sainsbury's for improvements to the town centre and was allocated to various town centre partnership project but it has been sitting in the district council bank account since 2001.

The consultation process for the current scheme publicised in the Shuttle/Times and News last week has been poor.

KRISP and retail shopping centre management were asked to attend early meetings, but we were very quickly dropped from these meetings once we put forward commercial reasons for not agreeing with the high costs being proposed by West Mercia Police.

Furthermore, KRISP was not seen by Wyre Forest Community Safety Partnership as being an acknowledged force in crime prevention.

How can this be so when our founder members were primarily police officers and we work daily with the town centre beat officers.

I ask why the current proposed scheme does not take advantage of the camera positions highlighted in the initial CCTV plans, and why the bias of the cameras is towards covering the "night time economy". Could this be because of the success of the privately-owned system in the Swan Centre and the very effective use of the Radio Link?

If partnership and commitment are in question here, then let the facts speak for themselves. The financial commitment of the retailers of the Swan Centre amounts to £20,000 a year. The membership of KRISP gives another £10,000 a year.

What justification do the district council, police and safety partnership have for ignoring the success of KRISP and the strategy of the town centre partnership?

Bromsgrove District Council had the foresight and determination to take advantage of very generous Home Office funding. They are now reaping the rewards by having towns like Kidderminster pay to use their facilities.

Wake up - and try to think of future benefits for this town. Such short-sighted planning is what has held the town of Kidderminster back for so long.

MARGARET MOON

Chairman of Kidderminster Retail Initiative and Safety Programme (KRISP), Kidderminster Town Centre Partnership vice-chairman, and Swan Centre manager,

Kidderminster