PLANS for CCTV in Malmesbury are expected to be shelved at a meeting tonight, despite police saying a camera system would be of huge benefit.

Town councillors, the police and other community groups have been working for nearly two years to put a scheme in place.

A working group will meet tonight to discuss its recommendations for the future of the scheme.

However, with the burden placed on council tax payers by the town hall revamp, the project is expected to be put on the backburner.

Sergeant Dave Stevenson said it was disappointing news for the police, who would be in a much stronger position to tackle crime with the cameras in place.

"I would say CCTV is a big bonus for us in preventing disorder and in detecting offenders," he said.

"CCTV would definitely help us a lot when things happen in the town."

Educational adviser Judith Burke, 56, of Ingram Street, was callously robbed of £170 in broad daylight in the High Street in June.

She said installing CCTV cameras in the town should be made a priority.

"I would be 100 per cent in favour of CCTV cameras in the town," she said.

"The police have worked incredibly hard to try and find my attacker, but they have been hampered because there was no CCTV footage of the incident.

"If that had been available, maybe the person would have been identified, or completely deterred from doing it, and then I wouldn't have had to go through such a horrible experience.

"The other aspect is a lot of police hours have been put into my case, which might not have been necessary if CCTV had been available.

"If I had been older and more vulnerable, the impact would have been more serious."

It had been hoped up to 11 cameras could be placed around the town, at a total cost of more than £30,000.

But town councillor Martin Snell, chairman of the working group, said it would be difficult to pursue the scheme at the moment.

"We have just not got the facility to support a scheme at this present time," he said.

"With the town hall situation, I can't see it will go much further forward.

"If you look at the current police figures on crime in Malmesbury, they're so low I don't think we could justify it.

"If we see the crime rate going up in Malmesbury, we will have another meeting and pursue any avenues that may be there."

Malmesbury firm Brio Technologies placed a camera on the town hall for a free trial period over Christmas.

"We definitely had positive results from it," said Coun Snell. "But many other councils have run into financial difficulties with CCTV schemes and we need to be careful."