Residents fear that police are being hindered in their efforts to catch criminals due to CCTV cameras being out of action in a Moray town.
Business owners were shocked to find out that surveillance equipment in Keith had no power and was no longer working.
This was due to Moray Council selling the Keith Institute building, where the power supply used to be based. It has not yet been relocated, although the local authority has moved to reassure residents that this will be taking place soon.
It’s believed that police have been increasing their patrols in the town.
Jane Wilson, a member of the Keith Fife Action group, fears that officers will find it more difficult to do their jobs and stop misbehaviour in the area without footage from the cameras being available.
She said: “Joyriders are a huge problem here and police do a fantastic job of trying to cut down on the problem but they can’t be everywhere and they fly up and down Regent Street and they zoom round the square so that’s a good reason to have these CCTV cameras working.
“Daffodils were vandalised this Spring and people unknown to us pulled the heads of the ones in Regent Street and pulled some out and tried to shove them into the tattoo shop letterbox and with no CCTV cameras to catch them.
“Police need to have them working to assist them in everything and protect the place so if the cameras were switched back on that would be ideal.”
Douglas Ross, Conservative MP for Moray said that the council needed to sort out the issue as soon as possible.
“I want them to find another power source that’s all they have to do,” he said. “The cameras work, the images are clear enough, the police use them, they are a deterrent but they need power to work and that’s the only thing we are waiting for.
“It’s quite frankly unacceptable for Moray Council to leave a community the size of Keith with CCTV cameras that are operational but without a power supply for them to be used.”
A Moray Council spokesman said: “The power supply for CCTV is being relocated from the Keith Institute to another building, and this is expected to be operational very soon.”