BUSINESS owners in Peebles are being sounded out about the possibility of installing CCTV cameras in their premises to deter criminals in the centre of the town.

The quality of CCTV coverage in the town has been the subject of lengthy debate in the past but the Community Council believe that this problem could be solved at a relatively small cost.

It was revealed last week by Chairman Les Turnbull at a meeting of the town’s community council that whilst there are CCTV cameras around the town, the recording equipment is “defunct” and not working properly and would be unlikely to support new cameras.

Community councillor Malcolm Bruce told the meeting that knew of a local businessman who had been subjected to disruption in the past and had invested in his own equipment to record activity outside his premises.

Mr Bruce said: “He (the businessman) made a suggestion and I think it’s worthy of circulation and consideration that if every business on the main shopping thoroughfares in the old town, the High Street, the Eastgate and the Northgate invested in their own fairly simple CCTV camera and place it prominently in their shop window facing out with a suitable warning to passers-by that recordings are being made then you would effectively achieve 100 percent coverage of all the main thoroughfares in the town.”

He currently runs two CCTV cameras at the Men’s Shed which cost around £70 are rechargeable and will run for about a month on one recharge and can be accessed from anywhere in the world via phones or ipads which capture high-definition images even in darkness with images ‘second to none.’

Mr Bruce added: “My suggestion is that if SBC and the police won’t come up with the goods in the form of a decent CCTV coverage system, then primarily it’s the shopkeepers who are taking a lot of the brunt of the bad behaviour that goes on in the town. I know there have been windows kicked in.

“Perhaps that would all cease if the persons kicking in the said windows were being filmed while they do it. It would be an effective control for very little cost.”

The community council welcomed the idea and believed that any issues could be overcome with proper controls and signage.

The opinions of business owners in the community are now being sought.