A ram-raid on a shop has highlighted the importance of CCTV, a councillor has claimed.

Rathbone Outdoor Wear in Keswick was targeted at 4.45am on Sunday, May 14 by thieves who smashed into the shop door in a dark-coloured Citroen Picasso and stole thousands of pounds worth of RAAB and Montane jackets, Montane long-sleeved tops and Berghaus T-shirts.

It came just three months after town councillors voted against funding public CCTV for the town centre amid concerns the £47,000 set-up fee plus running costs for three cameras was too expensive.

Instead, it was suggested that businesses should be encouraged to install cameras, if they did not already have them, to help combat shoplifting and other crimes.

The discussions were prompted because Cumbria police currently have no CCTV in the town and do not plan to install any.

Speaking at the monthly town council meeting last week, PCSO Todd Stuart said he had collected CCTV from a number of local businesses to help with the investigation into the ram-raid.

Councillor Andrew Lysser said: “Here’s an occasion when CCTV in that location would almost certainly have helped immediately.

“I’d like the police to look at it again. Here’s an opportunity where CCTV could have saved police hours of work and helped our town centre.”

PSCO Stuart, who co-ordinates the town’s Shop Watch scheme, added: “A lot of shops and businesses have CCTV. I’m looking at a way of using CCTV in shops to cover the town centre.”

Councillor David Burn said: “If the police can’t fund CCTV I think the way forward might be, as you suggest, the traders.”

He added that 60 businesses were on board with the idea of helping.

Rathbone Outdoor Wear was able to open as normal on the day of the burglary after staff rallied round to clear up.

Moves to continually expand the definition of what local occupancy means are pushing people out of Keswick by failing to address rising house prices, town councillors have warned.

Discussing plans for six new homes on the site of the former Castlehead House Hotel in Borrowdale Road, councillors raised concerns that the Lake District National Park’s current definition of local, used to restrict who is eligible to buy or live in certain houses, is too broad to fulfil their intended role of promoting local homes for local people.

The restrictions are placed on most new homes built or created within the Lake District National Park.

Councillor Denstone Kemp said: “The policy is wrong. What it means is people are going to move around and they’re going to build housing in the national park that isn’t going to solve the problem of people who need housing.”