Issue - meetings

Report by Barnstaple Town Centre, Pannier Market and CCTV Manager (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Barnstaple Town Centre, Pannier Market and CCTV Manager (circulated previously) regarding the future provision of the CCTV service.

The Barnstaple Town Centre, Pannier Market and CCTV Manager highlighted the following:

·         Outcomes of the reviews that had been previously undertaken of the CCTV service.

·         In addition to the objective of providing a CCTV service as set out in the Council’s CCTV code of practice, the service also supported the Council’s responsibilities for safeguarding and its statutory duty to promote the welfare of children as well as several other NDC services such as out of hours’ standby service, car parks, asset management, severe weather provision for rough sleepers and event management on Council land.

·         The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) published the Police and Crime Plan 2017 – 2020 ‘Safe, resilient and connected communities’ which set out a commitment to support local authorities that wish to invest in CCTV systems. The plan stated clearly that the PCC’s approach would be to provide a contribution to capital investments costs (not revenue) and that the focus would be on supporting the creation on interconnected, high quality and sustainable systems. The OPCC committed to providing up to £200,000 (for the whole of Devon and Cornwall) over the lifetime of the plan.  Following discussions with the OPCC an ‘Expression of Interest’ and bid had been submitted to create a Northern Devon ‘hub’ based on the Tolvaddon model.

·         The three viable options for the future of the service and the pros and cons for each option as detailed in the report which were to:

o   Option 1: Discontinue all CCTV provision

o   Option 2: Upgrade CCTV infrastructure and control room to provide onsite monitoring and hub potential

o   Option 3: Upgrade CCTV infrastructure (not including control room) with monitoring service to be outsourced to another control room.

·         Capital and revenue costs as detailed in the report.

In response to questions, the Barnstaple Town Centre, Pannier Market and CCTV Manager advised that monitoring of CCTV cameras would be made available to all Towns and Parishes.  If the Committee approved option 2, all Parish and Town Councils would be contacted to advise them of funding available from the OPCC.  It was hoped that the income generated would be higher than forecast.