David Tickell, town clerk and CCTV data controller, Teignmouth Town Council, Bitton House, Teignmouth, writes:

The article written by Chris Long has the headline Misleading and Misguided. Having read the content it is quite clear that it must refer to the comments made by Mr Long himself, rather than being attributed to Teignmouth's successful CCTV Town Watch scheme.

Teignmouth made a conscious decision seven years ago not to be partnered with the Teignbridge Newton Abbot control centre as we considered that their emphasis on shoplifting surveillance would not deal with the night-time anti-social behaviour difficulties that we had been experiencing.

After discussion with the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, the council decided to create a cost-effective, community-based scheme which would enable local response, detection of crime and equally as important the prevention of crime by rapid deployment of police resources to nip trouble in the bud.

Potential troublemakers soon realised that our presence was effective and there has been a considerable reduction in crime and an improvement in behaviour in the town since the commencement of operation.

Our volunteers are instructed in the demands of data protection and human rights and, after going through a police vetting process and being approved, they are issued an identity badge by the police which then clears them for access to the control room.

The police give training on the use of their communications system. There is a Teignmouth specific code of practice which each volunteer signs up to and this contains all the regulations and requirements to which they must adhere.

No, Mr Long, we don't have 22 cameras, that is misleading. We have 13 available on the town centre/ seafront system and all of these are modern Pan Tilt and Zoom (PTZ) and all can provide evidential images. We have a secondary system outside the town centre, which has two PTZ units and two static.

For Mr Long to make statements about our system and its effectiveness without him ever having visited our control is a bit rich. Furthermore in using figures of cost per arrest, is he indicating that Newton Abbot, Dawlish and Bovey Tracey aren't very safe places to be? He states that their costs per arrest are £12.62. Therefore with an annual total expenditure budget of £53,260 this equates to more than 4,000 incidents per year in Newton Abbot's CCTV control area. One has to ask where is the deterrent factor in their system?

No, Mr Long. We have been a key part of a considerable number of police investigations.

Teignmouth's CCTV success is in the reduction of crime as presented in the police annual report. This gives comfort and wellbeing to the town's residents and satisfaction to the group of approved volunteers who man the system.

It should be noted that Teignmouth has no annual CCTV funding whatsoever from Teignbridge Council and relies on a tight budget control from the meagre precept based on the Teignmouth domestic residents' portion of the council tax and of course the time, generosity and public spirit of the 14 or so volunteers.

misleading and misguided? yes you are, mr long.MORE LETTERS IN OUR DIGITAL EDITION