CONCERNING the two articles published in the Bolton Evening News about Westhoughton town centre's CCTV.

Members of the public who may have read the article may be under the impression that the town council must be "heartless" and "callous" towards the traders of the town centre because of their warning that the scheme may be scrapped.

The town council, for more than 12 years, has been concerned about the issues affecting the town centre and has consistently supported the introduction of CCTV. However, to obtain Government funding towards the scheme, there had to be a private sector involvement.

The original CCTV scheme was a public/private sector initiative, with support from the town councils of Horwich and Westhoughton, Emerson's (who kindly provide the monitoring facilities), and the then Chamber of Trades of Horwich and Westhoughton. It was also based on financial contributions from traders, which did take place in the beginning.

Sadly, following the demise of the two Chambers of Trade, the involvement of traders and their contributions dropped to a very low level, resulting in the two town councils picking up the bill.

For several years now, both town councils have actively tried to engage traders in to supporting the CCTV scheme in both towns, with virtually no response.

The request in Westhoughton for an annual £100 contribution towards the CCTV can be offset against tax allowances and dependent on their insurance company, businesses could receive up to a 10 per cent discount on insurance.

The majority of businesses have sadly failed to respond to the requests to support the scheme and the time has now come to decide whether to continue the scheme, which has, in the main, been paid for by the ratepayers of Westhoughton.

Cllr David Wilkinson

Westhoughton Town Council