SECURITY camera campaigner Marian Hannaford says Marlborough will become an increasingly soft touch for criminals now that there is little prospect of CCTV ever being installed in the town.

The Kennet Community Safety Partnership, chaired by the head of St John's School, Dr Patrick Hazlewood, has agreed not to proceed with CCTV in the Kennet area because there is no money available to pay for it.

The KCSP is a quango set up in response to a Government initiative and its members represent Kennet District Council, Wiltshire County Council, the police, youth services and other social groups.

In 2000, the partnership commissioned a feasibility study which showed there was a need for CCTV in the five Kennet communities Devizes, Marlborough, Tidworth, Ludgershall and Pewsey. But in December that year, members of the KCSP chose at the very last minute not to submit a bid for a share of a Home Office grant of £85 million specifically for CCTV schemes.

This year, a public survey showed that Marlborough was the only town with a majority in favour of the scheme. In Devizes, Pewsey, Tidworth and Ludgershall, the majority view was that people were not willing to pay extra council tax to fund CCTV.

On Tuesday last week, the KCSP voted to drop the idea because none of its membership partners was in a position to fund the installation of CCTV or find the running costs.

Kevin James, environment and community safety services manager for Kennet District Council, is the lead officer on the KCSP. He said: "The working group decided it wouldn't progress the CCTV studies any further until Government funding was forthcoming.

On Tuesday, Coun Hannaford said she was disgusted with the lack of interest shown by the KCSP and its failure two years ago to seek Government funding when it was available.

She said: "Every criminal will now look upon Marlborough as being a soft touch because all the other towns around have CCTV. We can expect to see the crime rate going up."