Webcam could solve broch crime
HISTORIC Scotland should be told to pay for a camera to stand watch over Clickimin Broch for vandals, according to SIC councillor Jonathan Wills.
He told Lerwick Community Council on Monday it should write to the government heritage agency telling it to look after the monument in its care. He accused its regional works manager Gavin Douglas of “dodging” the issue of how to prevent future vandalism to the Pictish fort, which suffered thousands of pounds of broken floodlights in a spate of attacks earlier this year.
Mr Douglas is not in favour of fencing or closed-circuit TV and does not think Historic Scotland would pay for it. He thinks a webcam is a more positive idea and might be something the tourism body VisitShetland might add to its network of webcams.
Community councillors discussed various ways of setting up a webcam which could be monitored by anybody in the world with internet access, regardless of whether or not it helped combat crime. But Dr Wills said the matter should be passed back to Historic Scotland.
On a brighter note, the police have reported that the wave of vandalism stopped suddenly after the removal of one young troublemaker from Shetland.
The community council heard that a lot of the increased damage around town during a recent period had been down to the one child, including the smashing of some of the floodlights. Sergeant Bruce Gray said after the “bad apple” had been removed his followers had carried on his work for a short while but then gave up.
