An M25 motorway service station has become the first of its kind to gain Secured Car Parks status.
Operated by Welcome Break, the South Mimms service area at the junction of the M25 and A1, just north of London, has invested œ300,000 in a mix of integrated security measures to prevent various crime, mostly vehicle-related but also unauthorised traders, and shoplifting. The operator joined forces with the Metropolitan Police and Hertsmere Borough Council in 1999 towards a crime prevention strategy. Soon after their scheme became operational, the service station’s recorded crime rate of about 100 incidents a month fell to four or five. CCTV and access control company Quadrant Video Systems designed and installed (with other on-site security measures) a CCTV surveillance system that features a mix of high-speed camera domes and static JVC TK-C1380 colour cameras. The services’ 700-vehicle car park, fuel station and main building are secured. Deemed as a priority at the services, the high-visibility profile for security is enhanced by the system’s car park cameras being displayed on monitors above the cash tills, in the retail outlets. Capitalising on the facilities available at Quadrant’s nearby town centre installations of Borehamwood and Elstree, South Mimms services, which attracts more than five million vehicles a year, is monitored on-site and from nearby Hertsmere’s control room. At each location, the selection and control of the system’s high-resolution cameras is entrusted to Synectics X250 Keyboards and supported by ‘Tesseract’ video matrix camera mainframe switching equipment. For reassurance for motorists within the car park, Quadrant has supplied an audio Help Point that provides direct voice contact to Welcome Break staff, or the Hertsmere Control. Commenting on the scheme, Welcome Break’s General Manager, Stuart Ashby, said: ‘We will soon have links between the car park cameras and the exit tag detectors, so that escaping criminals can be tracked to their vehicles. The investment in security measures have been well worthwhile and we’re busier than ever before, and that can’t be bad.’ Welcome Break is considering applying many of the measures at South Mimms nationally.
