The 'excellent work' carried out by Newton Abbot's award-winning CCTV team and the town development manager could be thrown a £60,000 financial lifeline.

A shadow was cast over the future of both in November when the town's traders rejected the creation of a Business Improvement District (Bid) and with it investment worth almost £1 million in the next five years.

Each commercial enterprise would have had to have made financial contributions equivalent to 1.5 per cent of their business rates.

The no-vote compounded problems created by the Police Authority's decision to withdraw its share of the CCTV funding, meaning that one of the officers who monitors the screens, Chris Long, would lose his job.

It also meant insufficient cash to keep town development manager Sally Henley in her post.

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