RESIDENTS need to do their bit to prevent crime, a councillor has said.

Cllr Bob Allen has called for wider use of CCTV, alarms, and other deterrents after it was revealed that more than 80 percent of burglaries and thefts committed in Bolton last year went unsolved.

The Heaton and Lostock Tory councillor said: “If you get burgled it is no good calling the police because they probably won’t come for days, if at all.

“If you can use things like CCTV cameras and alarms to stop the burglaries from happening, that is the way forward.”

However, after Cllr Allen tweeted “Time for self help” yesterday morning, Labour’s Cllr Sue Haworth asked him to clarify that he was not endorsing vigilantism.

She said: “My view is that that sentence suggests vigilantism and some sort of community fightback, and I don’t find that appropriate.

“We need to be fighting to get more police in Bolton.”