I REFER to your recent front-page article regarding CCTV.

I am implacably opposed to the installation of further CCTV cameras in Dunmow. Will this project really tackle criminal and antisocial behaviour in Dunmow?

Why doesn’t the council come clean about how many convictions have relied on the evidence of Dunmow’s existing CCTV system? I bet its not in double figures.

CCTV does not prevent crime although it may assist conviction in a few cases. We don’t want Dunmow to become a replica of 70’s East Germany. If I was a youngster again I think it would be a good wheeze to find a method to constantly disable the CCTV cameras. I think that it’s sad that young brains these days don’t seem to have the initiative.

Now, the doctors pond - a crime hotspot? No. It’s just a place where young people can meet with out being spied upon by the apparatchiks of Uttlesford District Council. If the ‘Haves’ in Dunmow stop treating out young ‘Have not’s’ like vermin maybe someday they will become valued townsfolk.

How can our local authority justify selling the high street council offices, replace that facility with a small room in the library and use the money to pay for new CCTV? Those offices were in the centre of town and provided a focal point for the community and could have been used beneficially to offer a positive service to the CCTV camera’s intended quarry.

How does UDC’s ‘’Elf-n-Safety’ officer Mr Ford form his opinion that “it will benefit the town” and how much has he been paid for working on it since September 2009? Why does he say that the existing equipment is outdated, as UDC constantly tinker with the existing ones and have recently installed a new one outside Bird Luckin? Maybe he means that we will now benefit from facial recognition systems. Lovely.

On a brighter note I was delighted to see a police constable on a bicycle in New Street. Why doesn’t the council give the �50,000 to the Dunmow Police so that they can buy another Police bicycle complete with policeman so that we can double the coverage?

If there is any change they could get a picnic table, gingham table cloth and bone china tea service. Then our local police could get a bit pro-active and set it up on the pavement and serve tea with cucumber sandwiches to the punters outside former Lennon’s nightclub in the evening. That worked very effectively for a PC friend of mine I knew a few years ago on a lawless London sink estate. But it did require commitment and effort.

Bryan Haines

Great Dunmow