A PEEBLES community leader has expressed his “dismay” at Scottish Borders Council’s decision not to fork out for new CCTV.

Chairman of Peebles Community Council Les Turnbull, also thinks communities funding and installing their own network is a recipe for disaster.

During a meeting of the town’s community council, he said: “I know it’s a highly political issue and I’m not making a political point, I’m making a very broad point that I value, and I think my colleagues value, what CCTV could bring to the town, and it’s very disappointing that the decision was made not to install them.

“I understand the financial constraints but I also thought that Councillor Stuart Bell’s suggestion for it to be phased in seemed to be eminently sensible and could’ve been achievable.”

Councillor Robin Tatler said there is CCTV in Peebles and asked police if it is used.

PC Diane Sorrell confirmed that officers do look at footage but added that it is not always useable.

Mr Turnbull continued: “The point is if a modern system had been installed it would have modern camera capable of picking up good images, capable of being used as evidence.

“I see that Selkirk have gone ahead to purchase their own. I personally think that’s a dangerous road to go down because if each town were to start installing their own system, you’ll not have consistency and standards.

"Who is going to look after it, in terms of who is going to monitor it and allow the police access? I think the Council has missed a trick and we should’ve had a fully modernised system capable of recording things to evidential standards.”

The Peeblesshire News spoke with Councillor Tatler who backed the Council’s decision not to invest in a new system.

He told us: “If individual communities want to have CCTV and they want to come up with a solution we would certainly support that.

"My view on it is there’s just not the evidence to show that it actually works. If you really interrogate the police there is very little evidence that they are actually used, particularly the fixed cameras. Once everyone knows where the cameras are you just displace the problem.”

Councillor Tatler said he would like to see investment in additional mobile CCTV cameras following the success in they had in reducing vandalism in the School Brae.

We asked Councillor Tatler who he thinks should foot the bill for mobile cameras.

He said: “The CCTV that we currently have, we didn’t put that in, it was actually communities that put that in place.

"The Council took over the running of it and we pay £40,000 a year to run those cameras. In my mind it should really be the police funding it. I would be in favour of them investing in more, I might even consider us supporting that.

"CCTV is not a statutory responsibility so no I don’t think the council should have to fund the whole network.”