Don Harkness - whose mum was viscously attacked in the town centre a year ago - described it as appalling.

"With the police we have we need something looking over us and we do need some kind of protection," he said.

"At the moment we have no answers to the problems and cameras would at least be a deterrent."

Mr Harkness' mum, Joan, was one of 13 pensioners who were mugged in the town centre a year ago.

She was left with a broken wrist, dislocated finger and black eyes after the attack, but police were unable to charge anyone with the muggings.

On Monday businessman Michael Oliver - whose £235,000 car was vandalised in King Street in January - claimed the town had missed out on CCTV funding because it was a Conservative area.

"If it had been a Labour stronghold that would have been different," he said.

"But Macclesfield Borough Council are also not interested in Knutsford's future - they can't even get the roads right."

This week the Knutsford Guardian contacted the Home Office, but a spokesman said they could not be specific about why bids failed.

A Knutsford partnership of businessmen and councils had hoped for £108,000 to pay for cameras in King Street and Princess Street, but their bid did not make the short-list.

Home Office guidelines focused on towns where car crime was a problem, but this week Sergeant Kevin Fryer said it was an issue in Knutsford.

"It forms a major part of our crime, but a lot of it is in rural areas and unfortunately you can't have cameras everywhere," he said.

More than 350 CCTV projects have benefited by £60million of Government money.

In a statement faxed to the Knutsford Guardian on Monday a spokesman confirmed that many schemes had been approved for small or rural communities.

But residents were reassured by borough council officer Bob Broughton who said all was not lost.

"We will have to decide where we go from here, but this is by no means the end," he said.

"We will look at our own budgets and other opportunities for funding, but I don't want to say too much about that at this stage."