THERE is no good time for a shop owner to have their front window smashed by vandals, but nor would right now be the worst time.
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Porters Cafe is the latest CBD business to be targeted by mindless vandals after a glass door was smashed on Friday night.
Owner Chris Bergen says it is the second time his cafe has been hit in the past eight months and he is not alone.
In the past month, windows at Harmonikos on Bentinck Street have been smashed twice, and just last weekend two more William Street businesses – Bathurst Travel Centre and Kelly and Partners Chartered Accountants – were targeted.
The spate of attacks has renewed calls for Bathurst Regional Council to finally fund closed circuit television (CCTV) in the CBD as both a deterrent to vandals and to help police identify offenders once an attack has taken place.
And Mr Bergen is one of those who thinks the time has come – and that CCTV can be a success in Bathurst.
If it is to happen, though, council will need to find the money in its 2015-16 budget and that’s why now is the perfect time to be putting the case for CCTV.
Councillors have already started planning for next year’s budget, putting together their own lists of priorities.
And if businesses – and the broader community – believe council should be paying for CCTV, then now is the time to step up the lobbying of councillors.
This is one of those issues that will not go away until the cameras are in place.
Businesses pay their rates to council and have every right to expect a sympathetic ear when they put in their requests for how some of that money should be spent.
The wait has gone on long enough.