Police and council in a CCTV pact

Jun 10 2010 by David Powell, North Wales Weekly News

A NEW state of the art CCTV control room aimed at cutting crime across Conwy county was unveiled last Friday.

Equipment in the control room has been upgraded and 84 of Conwy’s ageing cameras replaced at a cost of £600,000. There are now 120 cameras operating across the county.

As the control room was opened, North Wales Police and council chiefs confirmed a deal to share information gathered from the CCTV cameras.

An official code of practice was signed by Chief Constable Mark Polin and Conwy’s acting chief executive Ken Finch.

Conwy’s head of regulatory services Phil Rafferty said: “Conwy County Council and North Wales Police use CCTV to provide public reassurance and reduce crime and fear of crime within Conwy.

“This code of practice is a public document which sets out in detail how our public CCTV system will operate. This ensures we comply with legal standards and best practice.”

Officially opening the new control room, Conwy’s cabinet member for regulatory services Cllr Philip Evans said: “CCTV not only assists in the detection of crime, it also helps us to manage public places by identifying problems quickly.

“These improvements to the CCTV system will support the council’s aim to safeguard the community.”

Council staff monitor the CCTV cameras in town centres from the control room 24 hours a day.

Meanwhile, a feasibility study is ongoing into linking up CCTV across the six North Wales counties into one regional system.

Last October, it was reported how a delegation representing North Wales Police and all six county councils visiting the Senedd in Cardiff in September had secured £815,000 from the Welsh Assembly Government for the project.

The successful North Wales presentation team, which submitted a bid for the Invest to Save scheme, won funding over 102 other projects.

Mr Rafferty said: “The refurbishment of our control room was carried out with the regional project very much in mind.

“Much of the equipment we’ve purchased can be transferred to a new system.”

Currently monitored by six separate and very different schemes, the proposal is to cover the region with a single coordinated camera network.

Sharing services across North Wales’ boundaries will deliver significant savings for the councils involved and help manage responses from the police and other emergency services.