WILTSHIRE Council aims to start installing Salisbury’s long-waited new CCTV system on July 3, it has confirmed.

But the authority will not commit to a completion date after a series of previous estimates were missed.

Business owners met council officers and Salisbury BID last week to discuss progress on the project. It came after the council previously confirmed it would miss its latest target to have cameras online by the end of June.

Salisbury City Council leader Matthew Dean said: “There is nobody that is more disappointed than me that the CCTV system is not up and running.

“It’s caused me personally some local embarrassment because the commitments I have been given by officers at Wiltshire Council in the past I have relayed and put into the public domain, so I’ve felt that has made me look foolish.”

The city’s old CCTV system was scrapped last summer and Wiltshire Council sold the control room to developers.

Wiltshire Council promised a new fibre-optic system worth £500,000, provided the city council paid for its upkeep, and assured there would be no “switch off” or gap in service.

But more than a year later the new system still has not been installed, after several missed completion dates.

Cllr Dean, who is also a Wiltshire councillor, added that some of the delays had been “entirely unnecessary”.

He said: “This is going to be the only paid-for CCTV service in Wiltshire. Wiltshire Council themselves are making that capital investment. They are certainly not obliged to provide this service.”

Tracy Carter, associate director at Wiltshire Council, said the council had met the contractor and most of the issues behind the delays were “now in hand”.

When pressed for a completion date, Ms Carter said: “We are not talking years, we are talking months.”

Business owners asked if any assurances could be given to get the first camera up and running in July.

Ms Carter said: “Provided we get the contractor in on July 3 and everything goes to plan, the first camera should go live in July but there are a number of ifs and buts in that sentence.”

Cllr Dean said the CCTV was being treated as a “corporate priority” by Wiltshire Council, adding: “For the first time I feel there is some urgency behind it.”