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Narromine Shire Council has knocked back an offer of state government funding for the installation of CCTV cameras.
Re-elected Dubbo member, Troy Grant said he offered funding to the community 12 months ago for CCTV cameras but the offer had been rejected.
"I've long advocated support for the CCTV camera funding, and the funding hasn't been taken up," he said.
"I'm offering to help Narromine."
"At the end of the day we need more police on the ground,"
- Cr Bill McAnally
Mayor of Narromine Shire, Bill McAnally said the grant was in community partnerships and the council couldn't allocate in excess of $100,000 outside of the budget.
"(The money is) hard to get, we're going for a different angle," he said.
"Hard to get into a budget."
Cr McAnally still has plans to talk to Mr Grant about crime in Narromine.
"I'll talk to him when he's settled down from the election,'' he said.
"At the end of the day we need more police on the ground."
Mr Grant disagrees and says it's not all about police numbers.
"We can change working hours and patrols rather than police," he said.
Business owners are getting anxious for a solution with more local businesses targeted in the latest Narromine police report.
"It's such a beautiful little town but if this keeps happening it's going to become a ghost town," part business owner of Country Fair, Raelene Splitt exclaimed.
"People are saying it's (the crime) escalating."
Local farmer Col Hamilton believes there needs to be police available at any time of the day or night.
"When I grew up here they had a police officer living at the station and another couple in town. It was the same in Trangie. They were always on call and now it seems like they're all coming from Dubbo," he said.
Cr McAnally said local residents needed to report any crime happening in the town.
"Crime needs to be reported at the time. I don't want it to grow, but I want it to be reported," he said.
The mayor said crime was still a major priority.
"I'm not going to give up, I never have given up," he said.
"I'm trying to get a meeting with Troy (Grant) but we had to get the election out of the way."