FOLLOWING a number of criminal incidents in Kirkby Lonsdale, including assaults and thefts from commercial premises, the Chamber of Trade is to relaunch the Snowball Security Scheme.

This scheme involves using a central phone number to cascade warnings and alerts to every business who is a member of the chamber, with no one having to make more than two local telephone calls to ensure that everyone is alerted in the shortest possible time.

Chamber chairman Robin Sadler told the May meeting of the organisation's’ management committee that while the town has a very trusting community, it is also extremely vulnerable.

Committee members agreed that they had to protect themselves by reviving the once-popular scheme and offering free inclusion to all chamber members.

It was also pointed out that if B4RN do bring super-fast fibre broadband to Kirkby Lonsdale, it could be utilised to provide town-wide CCTV. Fiona Robinson, from Plato’s, commented that this would ensure that roads leading out of town could be monitored to track people or vehicles after an incident.