Lampeter council abandons CCTV surveillance project

The CCTV service in the Dyfed-Powys Police region will be reviewed

Ceredigion will have no CCTV provision to tackle crime this year after Lampeter council abandoned a plan to continue the service in the town.

The council had hoped to secure a partnership to fund the six-camera service with a local university.

But councillors have been told the project will not go ahead.

Meanwhile Dyfed-Powys' Police and Crime Commissioner has launched a review of CCTV in the region.

Christopher Salmon has said the police would be prepared to help fund cameras surveillance systems in Ceredigion, Powys, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire if the findings are favourable.

Earlier this year Ceredigion council decided to stop funding the system in the county to save £150,000.

Resurrected

It was part of its aim to plug a budget deficit of £9.6m during the next financial year.

The local authority then asked the five community councils with cameras if they were willing foot the CCTV bill from 1 April.

Aberystwyth, Cardigan, Aberaeron and New Quay councils decided not to pay for CCTV coverage.

But Lampeter councillors started discussions on future CCTV provision with University of Wales Trinity St David, which has a campus in Lampeter.

The town council has now abandoned any hope of running the service after those talks came to nothing.

Mayor, Dorothy Williams, said: "The university has decided not to work with us on this project so we have decided not to manage the CCTV cameras in Lampeter because we can't afford it."

But CCTV coverage in the county could be resurrected in the future after Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner, Christopher Salmon's decision to review the service.

He said: "Although the police do not fund CCTV right now, I am committed to providing a solution."