Hundreds oppose scrapping of 24/7 CCTV monitoring
Council says changes will not impact safety
Hundreds of people have signed a petition against plans to scrap 24/7 monitoring of CCTV in Maidstone.
It was revealed last year the council wanted to spend £110,000 on upgrading the borough’s 32 cameras to new high definition (HD), Wi-Fi enabled equipment. However, in order to make savings, bosses proposed eliminating the costs of round-theclock monitoring, which is done from a control room in Strood as part of a partnership with other councils.
Despite some scepticism, the local authority insisted there was “no evidence” the plan will have a “negative impact” on its duties around crime and disorder.
Work has already begun on the new system, with the rollout expected to be completed by next month, but a petition against the change has been launched, with campaigners calling on the council to reinstate a live monitoring service.
The pledge reads: “There are a number of areas within Maidstone that regularly experience serious, frequent anti-social and criminal behaviour which has shown to negatively impact on the wider community. “Without CCTV monitoring and operational control of the CCTV cameras, public safety is at risk.
“There are no preventative measures if there is no one who can monitor and operate the CCTV.
“This is particularly true for local business owners who are suffering due to loss of stock, door supervisors and security personnel who are prone to being attacked, threatened or otherwise abused while carrying out their duties in protecting members of public.”
The town hall claims the new system will be more cost-effective, providing a much better quality of recording and easier access of footage to the police, via a secure cloud network. It also said that as it does not employ such staff directly, it was unable to confirm how many jobs could be affected. A spokeswoman added: “Maidstone council is retaining and improving the CCTV service across the town centre by updating the infrastructure, including the cameras.
“A number of the cameras have already been moved onto the new CCTV system and there is no evidence to support the claim that public safety is being put at risk by the cameras not being continuously monitored. “We will regularly review the performance of the new CCTV system”.
The petition can be viewed at tinyurl.com/maidcctv