Case Studies

Royal borough review

by Mark Rowe

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is reviewing its public space CCTV as the region may go in the next two or three years to a regional ‘hub’ for its monitoring.

The royal borough is having an outside technical consultant review its 231-camera system, due to report back by August, after the council’s cabinet accepted a report, Delivering Differently in Operations & Customer Services – CCTV & Control Room Services.

The report told how the 20-year-old system is at the end of its life, as the maintenance contractor has to cannibalise second hand cameras to make repairs, as the equipment is no longer supported by the original manufacturer. The cost of providing the Maidenhead-based borough’s CCTV and control room services has historically been borne by the council. “No partner enforcement agencies or members of the Community Safety Partnership have contributed towards its provision or operation, before 2016/17. This position changed slightly in 2016/17 with TVP [Thames Valley Police] contributing circa. £30,000 towards the cost, approximately 5 per cent of the annual service
cost. This contribution arose from a Police review of the funding arrangements it had in place for CCTV across its force area. The purpose of their review was to identify potential efficiency savings and to secure a more equitable
funding arrangement that enabled a contribution to all authorities within the force area that have CCTV systems.

“Our understanding is that the police have provided resource and funding for CCTV arrangements in parts of
Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire previously. TVP’s contribution does not appear to be commensurate with the level of use of these services and the value the CCTV system and control room service is purported to add to their operation.”

The police force after its own review, completed in August 2016, has suggested that the royal borough consider merging its CCTV operation with Slough Borough Council and / or SEGRO (the property firm that runs Slough Estates, the large industrial park in the town). As a sweetener towards the ‘harmonisation’ of public space CCTV monitoring across the force area, which covers Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, the force says that it is willing to set aside £1m in match funding.

As part of the royal borough review, it’s looking at whether to do away with 30 of the less necessary cameras around the towns of Maidenhead and Windsor, and such villages as Datchet, and Wraysbury, and the two cameras on the high street in the village of Cookham (pictured).

For the report, visit the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead website.

More words and pictures in the April 2017 print issue of Professional Security magazine.

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