CONTINUED incidents of damage and graffiti in an East Cornwall park have encouraged councillors to purchase a second CCTV camera to increase surveillance coverage of the area.

Callington town councillors agreed last week to install a new CCTV camera in the Saltash Road recreation ground, on the opposite end of the park to the existing camera, in an attempt to deter or capture footage of incidents of vandalism.

The park has been subjected to a number of cases of vandalism recently, such as the destruction of the Cornish hedgerows and graffiti on play equipment and nearby buildings.

The current rotating camera predominantly focuses on the car park, but because the field slopes away, the whole park is not covered by the camera.

At a recent meeting of the Outside Services Committee Cllr Jamie Dowdall said: ‘The idea has come about following the damage to the hedges. The majority of night time movement seems to be at the skate park end of the field. We have CCTV at the top of the park, but the reality is that it doesn’t cover the main part of the park where the majority of people are.’

Cllr Jeremy Gist said there were two options for consideration — a wireless system which sends a signal back to the main system or a less expensive option of providing an electric cable down to a camera.

This would also allow for a power point at that end of the field which could be used for various events taking place in the park.

‘Either way if we put a pole up adjacent to the skate park, together both cameras would give us good coverage of the whole park,’ he said. ‘We would get closer and much better pictures of the areas that are getting damaged and it provides our own staff with greater safety when lone working in the park.’

The second camera option would cost in the region of £7,500, which Cllr Gist said sounded like ‘a lot of money’ but he added considering the amount of money the council had spent in the last few years repairing damage and equipment, he considered it to be ‘cost neutral’.

It was decided that the money would come from the council’s Council Tax Support Grant, which is a separate pot of money that is set aside for things like emergencies, contin-gencies or extras that the council feels would benefit the town. This would be a one-off payment from the fund to pay for the camera and installation. It was hoped the camera could be installed by the spring.

The recommendation was put forward to be ratified by the Finance and General Purposes committee, which agreed the proposal at its meeting on Tuesday.