CCTV – move to best endeavours monitoring recommended
Changes to how Shropshire Council monitors CCTV in Shrewsbury town centre are recommended as part of the measures the council seeks must take to save £62.5m from its budget.
Under the planned changes, 24/7 CCTV would continue, however live monitoring would be on a best endeavours basis, with a smaller team’s priority becoming to answer emergency out of hours calls for council services.
This follows a public consultation over the summer on the future of the CCTV service. This is a non-statutory service and Shrewsbury is the only Shropshire town where the council funds and runs a 24/7 monitored CCTV service.
While the consultation feedback wanted to see partners help fund additional monitoring resource, partners currently are unable to do so. Shrewsbury Town Council has however committed to provide funding of maintenance costs for the CCTV system, while partners are supporting plans for additional volunteer monitoring.
The council would seek to develop a council-wide volunteering offer and one of its first tasks would be to recruit volunteers to support CCTV monitoring.
In its budget plans for £62.5m savings in 2024/25, non-statutory services are under review. The Medium-Term Financial Strategy, agreed in February, identifies a £334,000 saving through a new model for Shrewsbury town centre CCTV monitoring and out of hours emergency call handling.
Currently, Shropshire Council wholly funds the staff and running costs of CCTV monitoring for Shrewsbury. In other towns in Shropshire, CCTV is run and funded by the town or parish council.
Robert Macey, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for culture and digital, said:
“This is another decision we have never wanted to face but, given our financial challenge due to rising costs and growing demand particularly for social care which accounts for £4 in every £5 we spend, we now have no choice.
“To become financially sustainable, we must review all non-statutory services we provide, such as CCTV monitoring and look at how we can do this more efficiently, reduce costs or stop altogether.
“The option proposed allows CCTV to continue operating 24/7 supported by best endeavours monitoring and exploring volunteer support, while making savings.
“We are grateful to our partners for their understanding of the very difficult situation we face and to Shrewsbury Town Council for their support for maintenance costs which until now Shropshire Council had met.
“I am afraid that people in Shropshire will see more and more of these very difficult decisions as more measures come forward to tackle our budget deficit fuelled mainly by rising demand and inflation.”
The report will be considered by Shropshire Council’s cabinet on 16 October 2024.
