BUDE CCTV Partnership will cease operating if sufficient funding can not be agreed before mid-September, chairman David Parsons told the town council at their meeting held on Thursday, August 4.

The project was established three and a half years ago with funding from the former North Cornwall District Council, the canal regeneration project and the police, and has since received further donations from Bude-Stratton Town Council (BSTC), the Neetside Project, Sainsbury's and the Bude-Stratton Community Project.

Having exhausted numerous avenues, he said that the equipment was showing signs of failure — the server, which has run 24 hours a day for two years, was looking "shaky" and the cameras "rusty."

The nature of the environment was to blame for the damage to the cameras and equipment, and the pictures have to be of a significant enough quality to ensure that the terms of its use are fulfilled. One camera has had to be taken down to provide spare parts for the others — meaning an area of coverage has been lost already.

The system allowed police to intervene before an incident got too far out of hand and arrests would have to be made — a point proven by the numbers of incidents in which the CCTV had been used.

Questions regarding how much funding was needed as a minimum to keep the project alive were difficult to answer David said. It would though cost £2,000 to turn the server off alone, should funding not be obtained.

As reported in a previous edition of the 'Post', David said he was "banging his head against a brick wall" when it came to obtaining enough funding to allow the project to continue.

He bemoaned in particular Cornwall Council's reluctance to contribute, despite he said, doing so significantly in the west of the county.

Alongside the street pastors, David said the system had done a lot to cut anti-social behaviour in the town, but they had tried all they could think of to ensure it continued, with no success.

Cllr Norman Tucker asked if it was possible to gauge the public's opinion with regards to keeping the system running, and take that into account. David responded:?"It's hard to get an accurate response. If people say they want it, they'll have to pay for it."

The finance, staffing and general purpose committee will discuss at their next meeting what options are available for the council, in terms of support for the CCTV project.

A deadline of September 20 was confirmed by David as being the point of no return for the system, should funding not be obtained.

See the 'Post' for a full report.