SALISBURY’S top judge says CCTV has been “vitally important” in jailing rapists and murderers, as pressure mounts on the city council to start meaningful talks to get a working camera system back in place.

The cameras have been switched off since Wiltshire Council (WC) sold the control room six weeks ago, and the authority will not spend the promised £500,000 on a new system unless the city council takes over some of its liabilities.

Judge Keith Cutler told the Journal: “I have been involved in cases including murder and rape, which have occurred in Salisbury, which have completely depended on CCTV evidence.”

And he warned it would be “absolutely awful for people to realise they can come in [to Salisbury] and commit crime”.

Old George Mall boss Jon Osgood said it was essential to install CCTV before the Christmas period to “ensure the continued safety of Salisbury residents and the protection of businesses”.

But WC finance chief Dick Tongue said: “It’s very difficult for us to spend £500,000 and get nothing in return”, and urged the city council to “come and talk to us”.

Recently, Salisbury City Council (SCC) leader Andrew Roberts said the city could not afford to take on the CCTV and other assets, including the Market Place, after it lost a bid to take over Laverstock and Ford parish and a potential £300,000-a-year in extra council tax income.

Cllr Roberts said the city council was “actively considering its next steps”.

Judge Cutler backed the Journal’s decision to reveal the fact that the cameras had been switched off.

“If we have been misled into thinking CCTV was there and shopkeepers and other people thought they were protected, it must be right for the Journal to report it,” he said.

He recalled three rapes in Salisbury where CCTV had played a key role in getting a conviction, including that of a young woman in St Thomas’s Square in 2005.

And Adam Cross was convicted in 2014 of murdering Joseph Starzacher, thanks to “crucial” camera footage, he said.

“I can’t think there are many cities now that don’t have [CCTV],” he added.

Cllr Tonge said he was “disappointed” SCC had not come back with an alternative plan to save the asset transfer deal and CCTV, after it lost its battle over the Laverstock and Ford boundary.

Cllr Tonge said there had been “high expectations” of the city council and, while there was no set deadline for a decision, the talks could not “go on forever”.

“We don’t want to let Salisbury down, but we have got to have a reasonable deal if we are going to go ahead,” he said, adding that “all the other towns in Wiltshire pay for their own CCTV”.

It comes after business leaders this week urged the city council to “get on and agree your negotiations quickly”.

Salisbury BID board members said having no working cameras was “unacceptable and jeopardises the safety and the future of this important city,” after a meeting on Wednesday.

The BID, which represents Salisbury’s city-centre firms, has trained volunteers ready to operate the new system as soon as it is installed.

Wiltshire Council has promised Salisbury a new CCTV system worth up to £500,000 to replace the one it abandoned last August and switched off in June, when it sold the building that housed the control room to developers.

Talks between the two councils have stalled in recent weeks, after Salisbury failed to win a “hostile takeover” of Laverstock and Ford parish, which would have secured more council tax to help pay the running costs of the camera network. This failure prompted city council leader Andrew Roberts to declare the asset transfer deal “dead in the water” and “neither fair nor affordable”.

But since then, city councillors have said they want to re-enter talks over the asset transfer deal.

Salisbury BID director and manager of the Old George Mall Jon Osgood said “whatever the outcome” of the talks, “a decision on procuring the new system must be made within the next few weeks and at the latest by the end of August”.

He said: “Our board represents the whole city, so the message is pretty clear – get on with it, the city needs CCTV again, and quickly.”

Cathedral Hotel boss Tony Negal said he was angry at the “crazy” situation, which he described as “absolute madness”.

He said it should have been sorted out before Wiltshire Council sold the control room at Pennyfarthing House to developers.

“It’s huge,” he said. “It should be the councils’ number-one priority. There’s a duty of care.”

Mr Negal said he knew of three crimes in the city centre on Saturday night that either would not have happened, or would have been easily solved, had there been working CCTV.

In one incident, a man had a chunk of his ear bitten off in the Market Square.

Salisbury’s new police chief, Inspector Pete Sparrow, has also spoken of his disappointment at the current situation and called for a swift resolution.