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Agenda item

Approval of Upgrade to WODC Public Space CCTV Provision and Monitoring Arrangements

Purpose:

On 12 June, the Executive will consider a report that recommends upgrading the public open space CCTV cameras covering areas of Carterton and Witney to high definition digital, together with the installation of five new cameras in Chipping Norton.  It further recommends the Council joins the Thames Valley Police CCTV partnership, with an associated transfer of CCTV assets and operational responsibility to TVP under a ‘single owner’ model; and moving monitoring arrangements to a shared Oxfordshire hub.

 

Recommendations:

To note the draft report to the Executive and make any recommendations for upgrading the public open space CCTV cameras and the associated changes to join the Thames Valley Police CCTV Partnership, with a shared Oxfordshire hub for monitoring.

 

 

Minutes:

The Executive Member for Housing and Social Welfare introduced the report that recommended upgrading the public open space CCTV cameras covering areas of Carterton and Witney to high definition digital, together with the installation of five new cameras in Chipping Norton. The report further recommended that the Council joined the Thames Valley Police (TVP) CCTV partnership, with an associated transfer of CCTV assets and operational responsibility to TVP under a ‘single owner’ model; and moving monitoring arrangements to a shared Oxfordshire hub.

It was explained that £300,000 was approved by Council in 2019/20 for capital investment in CCTV, £255,635 remained, after upgrading the control room in 2022. The Executive would be asked to note the potential funding shortfall of up to £55,000. The steps that would need to be taken were listed in 4.7 of the Executive report.

Furthermore, under the current operating model, West Oxfordshire District Council retained direct responsibility for the public open space CCTV system and its ongoing maintenance. In early April 2022, Thames Valley Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner tabled a report to the Police and Crime Panel outlining a new vision for CCTV. This vision recognised that CCTV existed primarily for the benefit of policing and the wider interests of community safety. Therefore, it was right that policing would shoulder the lion share of the responsibility for providing the capability, under a ‘single owner’ model. The single owner model would help to consolidate technology, drive savings through economies of scale, improve integration with police systems and provide increased resilience.

An Oxfordshire CCTV partnership board was established in 2022 and TVP had employed a CCTV Operations Manager to gain greater traction; the point had now been reached whereby an Oxfordshire monitoring control room, located in Abingdon, was proposed, which would form part of a Thames Valley Police CCTV Partnership which would see transfer of ownership of CCTV to Thames Valley Police.

The Assistant Director for Communities answered questions from Members and the following points were to be noted:

  • The Partnership Board would run the CCTV arrangements and any decisions on camera locations, removals, and additions would need to be agreed by the CCTV partnership Board with the funding formula adjusted accordingly. There would also be a legal partnership agreement put in place to ensure that any movements of assets out of West Oxfordshire would be considered in the funding formula.
  • All partners were seeking approval for the formal agreements from their perspective Executives. Thames Valley Police would do checks on requests for additional CCTV and would then fit that requirement into the funding formula as set out in the report.
  • Shortfall and future costs would be applied for through the Safer Street Fund as found in section 4.7 of the report. The outcome of the bid was currently pending and continuous funding would be sought were possible.
  • Reporting of faults and issues with CCTV would be done through the County Wide Maintenance Program and service reports could be provided if required.
  • In terms of timescales, if the Executive approved this approach and the Thames Valley Police agreed to take the lead on the procurement, then the project would likely start in the Autumn and be completed by the end of the calendar year.
  • In section 5.12 and section 6.5 of the report the total figures did not match. The figures in 5.12 were the correct figures.
  • Carterton Town Council was paying more for cameras due to transferred images and there were large costs involved in that; however, steps were currently being implemented to reduce those costs.
  • Any required upgrades to CCTV would be completed relatively quickly and the review time would be ongoing with the funding formula adjusted accordingly.
  • The Partnership Model would bring additional resources and real time monitoring. However, Officers would ask Thames Valley Police if they believed this would improve response times.
  • Security of the footage was believed to be secure due to the Thames Valley Police being complaint with the Commissioner Code and the quantifiable benefits of adopting the model were covered in section 2 of the report. If Members required more specific statistics Officers would need to request them from the Thames Valley Police.
  • Capital Expenditure had not been broken down within the report; however, Officers were happy to circulate those figures.

 

RESOLVED that the Committee AGREED to submit the following recommendations to the Executive on 12 June 2024:

Recommendation: That the priority order of the steps that will be taken to address the funding shortfall of up to £55,000 (paragraph 4.7) are adjusted so that steps c) and d) were moved up to become the new a) and b).

 

 

 

Supporting documents:

 

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