Town centre safety fears will see CCTV upgraded

THOUSANDS of pounds will be spent upgrading Taunton’s CCTV cameras as councillors admitted they didn’t feel safe in the town centre.

There are nearly 100 CCTV cameras covering public spaces in Taunton, Wellington, Watchet and Minehead, which are either managed directly by Avon and Somerset Constabulary or by council officers.

A number of analogue cameras operating in Taunton town centre are reaching the end of their service life and will soon be upgraded to digital, at a cost to taxpayers of around £58,000.

The rest of the camera network could be upgraded in the coming years, with different options being debated after the new unitary Somerset Council assumes power in April 2023.

Of the 92 public CCTV cameras operating in the Somerset West and Taunton district, 60 are in Taunton, with Minehead having 17, Watchet having nine and the remaining six being in Wellington.

While the Minehead and Watchet cameras are monitored and maintained by the police, the cameras in Taunton and Wellington are monitored and maintained by Sedgemoor District Council, under a legal agreement with its neighbouring local authority, with a control room being located in Bridgwater.

Under the current proposals, 11 existing analogue cameras will be replaced along the ‘spine’ of Taunton town centre, running from the A3027 Staplegrove Road along North Street, Bridge Street, Fore Street and East Street.

This will cost £58,642 to achieve, with the funding coming from Sedgemoor’s existing maintenance reserve.

After April 2023, the new unitary council will take a decision on whether to continue upgrading the remaining cameras to digital, including a further 12 cameras in the Paul Street car park in Taunton, which could be done in phases over several years at a cost of up to £484,667 on current estimates.

Scott Weetch, Somerset West and Taunton Council’s community resilience manager, explained the idea behind the upgrade at a meeting of the council’s community scrutiny committee this week.

He said in his written report: “There are 92 cameras across our district, the vast majority [of which] are analogue. They are significantly beyond their recommended lifespan and are starting to fail.”

Cllr Roger Habgood – whose Monument ward includes numerous villages between Taunton and Wellington – said he was “disappointed” and “dismayed” that so little work had been done on this matter since the Liberal Democrats won control of the council in May 2019.

He said: “Most of this has been kicked down the road for the future authority to take up the £250,000plus problem that is still going to be there. I’m dismayed.

“I know the negotiations with Sedgemoor can’t have been that easy, but they are obliged to work with this.

“If we did £60,000 every year in the past two or three years, we’d be in a much better place.

“I go all the way around Taunton at 2am or 3am with the street pastors, and let me tell you: without those cameras, it’s dangerous. We don’t operate unless we have to, and they provide us with cover.

“The fear of crime is rising here, not diminishing, and partly because of this. I’m disappointed to say the least.”

Cllr Janet Lloyd, whose Wellington East ward includes much of Wellington’s town centre, added: “I don’t go to Taunton at night – I wouldn’t want to.

“I have been out with the street pastors in Wellington in the past, and we knew that the cameras were there.”