Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV) which they are now welcoming with open arms.

Corporation of Hamilton Secretary Roger Sherratt said he had received a petition which had been signed by 20 businessmen asking for cameras to be installed in Court Street.

Mr. Sherratt said: "That is about 85 percent of businesses that support having cameras installed, and the Corporation has written back to each person who signed the petition confirming receipt of the petition and we are encouraged to have so much support.'' Mr. Sherratt also said that when the possibility of CCTV was first discussed in 1995, both the North Hamilton Businesses Association and the United Bar Owners Association strongly opposed the scheme on behalf of their members "We did not want to be putting cameras in an area where stake holders were against it,'' said Mr. Sherratt.

He added that the Corporation always intended having cameras on Court Street, but they reluctantly restricted them to other parts of the city.

Since then there has been a major change in the attitude toward CCTV, and there has been a renewed thrust in trying to improve North Hamilton.

Mr. Sherratt said: "Safety and security is the biggest problem for development and the Corporation sees a great need for CCTV on Court Street.'' He said that when the cameras were first installed in June 1999, the Government said there could be no further extensions to the system for 12 months until it had proven to be effective.

This time period has elapsed and there has been no moratorium on installing further cameras around the city.

Mr. Sherratt said the Government, in partnership with the Corporation, had done a survey on Court Street that was 95 percent complete, and the only major hold up is that fibre optic cable to link the cameras does not extend into that area of north Hamilton.

He said the fibre cable was operated by Quantum Communications which has since been dissolved but the rights to use the system are in the process of being sold. Mr. Sherratt said: "We will then have someone with whom we can negotiate.'' He said they would need to sort out how the costs were shared out, but said it would be far less than when the system was first installed as the infrastructure is now there.

Mr. Sherratt said that one of the advantages of CCTV was that the camera could be zoomed in to see exactly what is going on in a fight for example, and see if anyone is carrying weapons, identify the main perpetrators and let Police officers on the ground know if there is a major problem.

In an effort to gauge community reaction to proposals, several stores on Court Street were canvassed yesterday, and many said they supported the new initiatives.

One store manager said: "People are reluctant to come down here, we need a draw card, something that would encourage people to come down and shop, its just rough.'' Concerning CCTV, the store owner said: "If cameras are going to make people feel safer, I don't know, whatever it takes to bring people down here.'' The manager said there was no one to explain what the benefit will be and added: "We need someone to let us know what is going on with the cameras, because offhand, I don't know what it will mean.'' And he questioned what happened to the proposed Police station slated for the area.

A Police spokesperson said yesterday that a building had been identified in the area and they were currently looking at renovation costs.

The spokesperson also said that Commissioner Lemay had warned criminals that their "time is up''.

The renovation of the station is expected to be underway in a couple of months.

Hamilton mayor Lawson Mapp has also proposed holding craft fairs in the Court Street vicinity, and this has met with mixed reaction.

One store manager welcomed the idea and said it would possibly attract people to the area.

Another store manager did not think that a craft market was a good idea but a flea market or regular street festival would be better.

"Something for the working class people is what we need,'' she said.

She said that tourists do not come down Court Street, and so they were losing business and struggling to pay rent, and she would welcome cameras in the area.

A spokesperson for the North Hamilton Business Association said they had not received a letter from the Corporation of Hamilton but said that on the basis of meetings they have held in the past few months, the majority of people supported the installation of CCTV.

BUSINESS BUC CRIME CRM