TRADERS in Horwich have been told to pay up or lose the town's CCTV cameras.

Shopkeepers are refusing to pay a voluntary sum of £10 a month to support the scheme.

Horwich town councillors said today the traders had one last chance - otherwise the eight security cameras will be removed.

If the cameras are taken away it would end the seven-day, 24-hour surveilleance of the town centre.

The system costs £16,000 a year to maintain, a sum the town council says it cannot afford.

A crisis meeting was called last November after letters sent twice to shops and businesses in Winter Hey Lane, Lee Lane and Chorley New Road failed to bring in any payments. Representatives from only three of the town's 130 businesses attended the meeting.

Despite the lack of cooperation, councillors agreed to continue funding the scheme for the financial year, which finishes at the end of next March.

Now they are due to discuss the future of the system, announcing a final decision at the next council meeting on September 13.

Council leader John Cronnolley said: "The meeting we held last year only brought forward two extra businesses who made payments. Since then no further companies have contributed.

"The response has been pretty pathetic. This has to be a partnership. It is not only the people of Horwich who benefit, but the traders themselves as it is their businesses which are covered by the cameras.

"We are not very hopeful and I am very disappointed with the actions and the attitude of the traders.

"The council does its best to support businesses, but if they are not prepared to put their hands in their pockets for the equivalent of £2.30 a week the cameras will have to switched off, and they will only have themselves to blame."