MAJOR projects have seen their funding slashed in the district council's budget for the coming year.

An upgrade in CCTV on Debden Broadway has had its funding from Epping Forest District Council quartered from the £100,000 originally planned to £25,000 in the budget which members are due to approve on Monday.

The chairman of the Debden Town Centre Partnership, Dave Stannard, said: “If there is a reduction, we will be very disappointed.

“It is very much needed. There was going to be a vast improvement on the current system.”

The manager of Barnardos charity shop in The Broadway, Joan Knight, 58, called for better CCTV coverage when clothes were strewn across the ground at the back of her premises.

She said: “They have cut it by quite a lot. The thing with Debden is that you have a lot of trouble, so I don't know how that's going to help.

“Quite a few people have come into the shop and said they've had their purse pinched.”

Hairdresser Geraldine Wilson, 58, whose salon is also in The Broadway, said: “We do need (the upgrade) for safety reasons.

“It's nice to feel safe and it makes the insurance a lot better for the shops.”

Another cut in the proposed budget is the £572,000 the council had planned to spend on revamping car parks on housing estates, which is due to be reduced to just £13,000.

Gravel Lane resident Karen Coveley, 44, said the car park on her estate was in desperate need of work.

“We have four parking spaces for 14 houses and four flats,” she said. “There are grass verges which the council has to maintain, which could become parking spaces.”

But there is some good news in the budget, as council tax for the average household is not set to rise in the coming year.

The council's finance portfolio holder, Chris Whitbread, said that despite cuts in Government grants over the next few years, it was in a strong financial position.

“I am confident we will meet the challenge and protect important services,” he added.