Radios offered to shop owners to deter shoplifting

Radios are being offered to shop owners as part of a scheme to deter shoplifters.

Premises across Stamford, Bourne and Market Deeping town centres are being encouraged to join the Shopwatch scheme, which is already in place in Grantham.

The scheme involves supplying radios to allow businesses to communicate between each other and warn of suspicious activity.

Councillor Paul Stokes, deputy leader of South Kesteven District Council, said the scheme would "give retailers the chance to work together in a practical way by quickly passing on intelligence to each other."

The council said it was providing £25,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to expand the scheme.

The radios will be linked to the authority's CCTV control room, where cameras are monitored 24/7, along with being able to link directly to Lincolnshire Police.

Barbara Mooney, Pubwatch and Shopwatch co-ordinator for Grantham, Stamford, Bourne and Market Deeping, said the licence for the radios would be paid for in the first year.

She said businesses need to be a member of the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce Shopwatch scheme to benefit from the offer.

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