TRADERS in Otley have welcomed the prospect of CCTV surveillance in the town, seeing it as both a deterrent and method of detecting criminals.

Our survey of traders at Westgate, close to where recent street robberies have occurred, agreed that incredible surveillance could help beat crime.

Trevor Backhouse, of Patisserie Viennoise, said: "It could improve the security of the town and there are certain blackspots. There is one round the corner from my shop that had at least one mugging happen there.

"I would like to see more police, but everybody says that all the time. The police say they can't have someone on every street corner all the time.

"I don't expect that, but I do think we should have more visible police on Fridays and Saturdays during the day and evening."

Peter Heald, of Lunds of Otley, said: "I would certainly be in favour of CCTV. I know that the cost is fairly prohibitive on a full system, but I understand that a system is quite feasible with one or two cameras and I think we should certainly try something along those lines.

"There have been several reasonably serious incidents and the one where the man lost his eye was dreadful."

Neville Harrison, of Toyland, said: "The thing about cameras is that we have got cameras in the shop and it is good as a certain amount of deterrent, but it isn't a be-all and end-all.

"Otley certainly needs something, but, of course, it is very expensive."

Howard Hughes, whose workshop is in Milligans Yard, off Westgate, said: "I think it is a good idea. I think the only people who are going to complain are the ones that are doing the robberies."

Graham Hardy, of Kensington Antiques, said: "I think it has been proved to be very successful and I think prevention is better than cure. I am a big believer in dummy cameras because you never know if they are filming or not.

"Around the town if you placed dummy cameras along with real ones, you would never know which was which. That way you could cover the town for about a tenth of the cost."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.