Apologies for the lack of blog updates of late. I’ve been spending a bit of time with my family and have taken in some sights of England over the past couple of weeks over the summer break. (More on that later)
This week, I’ve been to the seaside and visited Southends CCTV control room with some fellow members of Rayleigh Town Council. I had initially put forward the idea of sending a small delegation of Councillors to view Southends CCTV control room to see how they operate and to see if their solution could be scaled to our needs here in Rayleigh and was pleased it was received positively by other members of the group. I often wonder why we spend so much time trying to reinvent the wheel when there really is no need and all it does is cost more time and money.
We spent a constructive morning with Southends CCTV team and asked many questions about how their CCTV system is used to tackle crime. One aspect of their system stood out amongst all others. It wasn’t the number of cameras, the quality of the cameras or locations (yes all important aspects of the system), it was the fact that the cameras are monitored 24x7x365.
As I previously mentioned the research points to the most effective use of cctv is if it’s monitored. This of course will come at a price. Residents may be asked in the coming months if they are prepared to consider these costs or it may be that as a Council we can meet these costs within current budgets.
Now we can move on to the next steps which will be to meet with experts in Rayleigh to determine the scope of a system and the associated costs. Then we can consider further the value and merit of CCTV for providing an addition to community safety for our residents.
I believe that we are moving in the right direction and which will result in the best outcome for residents and if anything we could provide a system that is far above anything that our town has seen in previous years.
There is still a lot of work to do on the community safety group and some of that is already taking place. I’ve already asked to engage with our youth workers to see how we can help reduce ASB caused by some of the younger members of our community.
I will post another update in due course once our wider group has met again to inform residents of the outcome. If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch either with the comments below or by email.
I hope you’ve found this post informative
