A CCTV Working Group has now been formed. This group is a mix of members of the public and business owners, including retailers from our town.

The purpose of the group is to maintain the current high profile achieved for CCTV, by creating a clear strategy as to how to influence the town council , present and new after 3rd May, that CCTV is important to our town.

It became evident, at the meeting on 21st March, from statements made by existing town councillors speaking as individuals, that their judgements on CCTV were based on valid issues relating back to 2007/8. The group feel that the situation has changed dramatically since that time with other towns in the CCTV partnership now happy with the county council run system. We feel that Monmouth is being left behind and will miss out on new possibilities such as new HD cameras, if it does not rejoin the CCTV partnership. MCC has indicated that Monmouth Town Council could rejoin at very short notice and CCTV could be working again in town, in just a few short weeks.

We feel that the current town council has acted responsibly in keeping this coming year's budget down, a precept per household well below even Magor, Usk and Rogiet, but feel that a standard yearly equivalent charge for CCTV , adding just £2.60 per year to an average household council tax bill of £1400, would not be considered a material cost by the public of Monmouth .

The Chamber organised petition of 2009 resulted in 1349 residents of the town voting in favour of the reinstatement of CCTV. This was backed up by written letters of support from over 60 retailers. A recent poll of Chamber members has revealed that not one single member out of 100 is against the reinstatement of CCTV. A Beacon reader's poll last week indicated that 92.9 per cent of readers taking park in the survey were in favour of the return of CCTV.

We believe that the strength of feeling in support of CCTV in the town means that the subject of CCTV should be revisited. Will the Town Council include the matter for discussion on the agenda of the first post election full town council meeting on 14th May?

David Cummings

Chairman, Monmouth CCTV Working Group

The first meeting of the CCTV Working Group will be held today Wednesday 11th April at the Gatehouse public house at 6pm. If you feel strongly about the issue of CCTV why not come along and be part of the group?"