CCTV review will go ahead
West Berkshire Council will carry out a review of the transfer of the CCTV control room
WEST Berkshire Council is to carry out a review of the transfer of the CCTV control room at Newbury to its new home in Windsor and Maidenhead, following concerns the switch-over has been beset with problems.
At a meeting of West Berkshire Council's Overview and Scrutiny Management Commission on Tuesday, the decision was taken that the scrutiny group would look at the project and speak to retailers in the town following months of concern that a series of crimes affecting businesses in the town over Christmas had gone unmonitored.
West Berkshire's shadow portfolio holder for community safety, Roger Hunneman (Lib Dem, Victoria), had made the request for an urgent review on January 27, following “clear problems” with the transfer, and the leaking of information to the press and public which had contradicted claims from council officers over the status of the 40 cameras watching over West Berkshire.
During the transfer, many local traders in Bartholomew Street and Pound Lane said they felt many crimes over the Christmas period had gone unmonitored by the CCTV cameras in place, and were unhappy that the council had issued a statement proclaiming all the cameras to be working.
Scrutiny panel member Quentin Webb (Con, Bucklebury) said that any such review would benefit from the views of retailers in the town, and it was agreed that as large a cross-section of views would be sought as part of the process.
Statements from portfolio holder for community safety, Anthony Stansfeld (Con, Kintbury) as well as from the leader of the council, Graham Jones (Con, Lambourn), had claimed severe weather issues and problems with telemetry (the transmission of the recordings) had caused a delay.
Mr Hunneman said he would wish to see “the most comprehensive review possible”.
The review will examine the project plan, the public communications plan, what level of uptime was expected/planned for during transition, and whether the council's standard project methodology was used for the project.
Mr Stansfeld was not present at the meeting, but it was noted that he had given the review his backing.
The chairman of the scrutiny panel, Brian Bedwell (Con, Calcot), said: “The members would be very happy to support this. Once it has settled down a bit it will be interesting to see how the improvements have worked, as part of the scrutiny. There were several issues reported, and we will look into them.”
The results will be fed back to the council's executive.
