Thatcham Town Council looks at taking on CCTV costs

District council cuts include losing security cameras, unless cost covered elsewhere

THATCHAM Town Council is considering its options over paying nearly £20,000 to keep CCTV cameras active in the town.

West Berkshire Council currently funds 40 cameras across the district at the cost of £224,930 a year.

In an attempt to save money the district council is proposing to cut the service unless someone else picks up the tab.

Four cameras in Thatcham could be switched off under the proposals.

The cameras are monitored in a control room based at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council.

West Berkshire receives no funding for the cameras but pays £146,349.36 a year for the monitoring service.

Thatcham’s cameras cost £19,888 (£4,972 per camera) with monitoring costing £14,636.

In its budget proposals the district council said: “This is a non-statutory service and one that many councils have already closed down without a negative effect on crime levels.

“Nationally, crime is low and in West Berkshire this is no different.

“In fact crime has fallen consistently over the last five years.

“Unless we receive assurances from the appropriate town and parish councils and from Thames Valley Police that they are prepared to fully fund this service it is proposed to suspend this service from April 1, 2016.”

Thatcham Town Council is exploring its options over taking on the service.

Feedback from the Safer Communities Partnership Team has suggested that the town council should not manage the camera data itself, owing to rules surrounding the retaining and storing of information.

Options include renegotiating the contract with Windsor and Maidenhead; engaging with other councils and organisations providing CCTV; or a store-and- record system rather than continued monitoring.

The leader of the town council’s Liberal Democrat opposition Lee Dillon (Thatcham North) said that the authority would need to assess the impact of losing the cameras.

He said the town council would have to make a decision based on facts and how much the service had been used rather than the fear of losing the system.

It would also have to look at the costs of a passive system, as opposed to a continuously monitored one, as this appeared to be the most expensive element of the system.

Mr Dillon asked that any comments from the public consultation relating to Thatcham’s CCTV should be sent to the town council to aid it in its decision.

The town council took over the running of the Broadway toilets in October after West Berkshire Council said it would close the loos unless the town council stepped in.

Mr Dillon said that the district council was facing difficult decisions but was “farming out costs to parish councils” who would then have to raise their precept rates instead.

Town council leader Richard Crumly (Con, Thatcham Central) said that the issue was more complicated than it first appeared and that further investigations were needed.

When asked about West Berkshire Council passing on services to town councils, Mr Crumly said that central government was providing less money to local authorities and that savings had to be made.

“It’s a challenge rather than disappointing,” he said.

The leader of West Berkshire Council and Thatcham town councillor, Roger Croft (Con, Thatcham South and Crookham), said that parish and town councils would have to consider whether it was appropriate for them to take on the running costs.