Report by Place Manager (Town Centres), (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Place Manager (Town Centres) (circulated previously) regarding North Devon CCTV Hub Charges.

The Place Manager (Town Centres) highlighted the following:

·       The objectives of the CCTV hub were set out in the report at paragraph 4.1, namely:

Ø  To help reduce the fear of crime

Ø  To help deter crime

Ø  To help detect crime and provide evidential material for court proceedings

Ø  To assist in the overall management of Barnstaple Town Centre

Ø  To enhance community safety, assist in developing the economic well- being of the Barnstaple area and encourage greater use of the Town Centre

Ø  To assist the other Local Authority departments in their enforcement and regulatory functions within the Barnstaple area

Ø  To assist in traffic management

Ø  To assist in supporting civil proceedings which will help detect crime

·       The increase to fees was set out in paragraphs 4.14 to 4.16, namely:

Ø  In 2019 NDC set the monitoring cost at a rate of 40p per hour per camera. This cost was been calculated based on the actual current cost to NDC and is in line with other charges by other control rooms such as Tolvaddon. The monitoring cost it is proposed to increase by 5% for 2023/24,  in line with the Councils other fees and charges, and be set at a rate of 42p per hour per camera.

Ø  Conversations with other towns / parishes had shown that the option to pay a retainer to NDC for data transfer costs and the recordings reviewed if required (within the 28 day retention period) was preferred so there was a need to set a fee for that option. The proposed charges were a one off connection fee of £500 to get the 2 systems integrated and then a £100 per month retainer for the following service:  data to be transmitted to the hub where it would be recorded but only viewed by authorised personnel if an incident occurred and then deleted after 28 days if not required; and

Ø  The Service offer and associated costs were set out in the North Devon CCTV hub specification as shown at Appendix A.

In response to a question, the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive advised the following: 

·       The original budget for 2022/23 included an estimate of the anticipated income to be received from the CCTV hub.  However, the current level of income was down on the original estimate due to timings of the implementation of the new hub and roll out of the new service.

·       The additional costs for employees in relation to enhancements for working during the evening and weekends had been omitted from the original base budget, however employees were already receiving the enhancement payments and the budget would be amended back to the correct level.

·       Other Councils had expressed an interest in using the hub services, which included South Molton Town Council.

·       Further information would be provided for Members on the anticipated level of uptake of the hub services.

The Place Manager (town centres) responded to a question about the uptake of this service with the reply that there had been a lot of interest with South Molton showing an interest in the Retainer service, conversations with four other Parishes were ongoing and Ilfracombe Town Council were on board.

RESOLVED that:

(a)   the progress of the implementation of the North Devon CCTV hub be noted.

RECOMMENDED that:

(b)  the increases in fees as set out in paragraphs 4.14 to 4.17 of the report be approved at Council.