Claim city’s CCTV service hit by ‘operational neglect’ rejected

Nicholas Thomas, Local Democracy Reporter

A senior councillor has rejected claims that the local authority let its CCTV network become “severely eroded” due to underfunding.

Decision-makers at Newport City Council have agreed to spend a further £150,000 on upgrading the city’s surveillance cameras, on top of £300,000 agreed last autumn.

Conservative councillor Will Routley claimed the decision to spend big on CCTV improvements amounted to a “stark indictment of years of systematic underfunding and operational neglect”.

He alleged “broken cameras have been left blind due to a total lack of routine maintenance” and budget cuts had left a “skeleton staff” to manage the CCTV control room.

But Cllr Jason Hughes, the cabinet member for communities in the Labour-run local authority, denied CCTV staffing levels had been reduced.

He said the CCTV service was staffed by “well trained” operators but accepted the infrastructure required investment and modernisation – “which is exactly what we’re doing now”.

“Over austerity, the city lost over £100 million worth of funding, so updating things has been pretty difficult across the board,” said Cllr Hughes.

“The position has now been recognised and addressed, and the cabinet has agreed capital investments to modernise the CCTV platform, replace ageing equipment, improve resilience, and provide future camera and technology upgrades.

“This is a clear investment in the service, and not a reduction.”

Cllr Routley maintained the CCTV service had been “cut back” in the past, and asked whether the council had prepared any risk assessments on staffing and funding levels.

“We’re constantly looking at our systems, but I’m going to refer you back to one very simple fact – that the council has not reduced CCTV staffing over time,” replied Cllr Hughes. “These upgrades now are required because our infrastructure has become older and they will fail as they become older and we’re upgrading it.”

The cabinet member said previous UK Government austerity measures had led to cuts in police numbers.

“We’re actually doing something about it now, that’s the big difference,” he said. “We are doing what we need to do – and what we’re doing is upgrading a system and making it much better and much safer for the people of Newport, and making sure that it stays modern enough to adapt as we move forward.”

CCTV upgrade

Following the meeting, Cllr Matthew Evans, who leads the Conservative group, said he had written previously to the cabinet member, asking whether the £300,000 CCTV upgrade announced last year had been implemented.

Cllr Evans said the cabinet’s response stated “preparatory work” was under way, and the upgrade would be carried out “this year to improve resilience, capability and response across the city centre”.

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