Review after town CCTV did not capture fatal crash

A review is under way after a town's CCTV cameras did not capture the moment two women were hit by a van.

Cheryl Decarteret, 79, died in hospital after she and her best friend Margaret Shaw were hit on 27 September in Melksham, Wiltshire.

Due to a loss in connection between 12:48 and 14:00 BST, there was no footage of the collision - which led to Ms Decarteret's family to call for an urgent investigation.

A Melksham Town Council spokesperson said they recognised "the pain and frustration residents" were experiencing and were taking the CCTV outage "extremely seriously".

"We will publish the full findings of our investigation in due course," they added.

Ms Shaw is continuing to receive treatment at a rehabilitation centre in Bristol after sustaining serious injuries in the crash.

Hayley Charman, the daughter of Ms Decarteret, told BBC Wiltshire the loss of evidence had "caused additional upset and distress" to the family.

"The CCTV footage could have helped with the police investigation and given us hope for justice. Instead, we've had to campaign and push for answers to why the footage was missing," she said.

She said the situation had left them feeling "hurt and let down" at a time when they were "trying to grieve and come to terms" with their loss.

According to the town council, Melksham has a 73-camera wireless CCTV network which has fallen victim to connection drop-outs and data loss in the past.

On 16 September, just over a week from the collision, an independent third-party specialist was appointed to look at the cameras.

Since the incident, the council said additional advice had been sought and a "full independent review", examining technical performance, governance, oversight and compliance, was now underway.

The review, which will not look solely into the hardware itself, will be carried out in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice, the council confirmed.

Approaching her first Christmas without her mum, Ms Charman said it was going to be emotional for all the family, who have pulled together and supported each other.

"Christmas day will be really difficult, it's going to be emotional as her not being there will be a constant reminder of what has been taken from us," she said.

Ms Charman said the much-loved grandmother "loved Christmas so much" and always "put so much thought" into choosing presents for those she loved.

"After she died, parcels kept arriving at Mum's house, presents she had ordered, not knowing she wouldn't be here to give them," she said.

"We are left trying to work out who she intended each present for," she added.

A 25-year-old man from Melksham was arrested by Wiltshire Police on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving under the influence of drugs following the collision but was later bailed, then released under investigation.

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