Police to take over town centre CCTV
The town’s CCTV has been a thorny issue since the police stopped funding it a number of years ago as a force wide cost-cutting exercise, but Welshpool Town Council stepped in. They were one of the few to do so in Powys and it is costing us around £6,000 a year in running costs.
But under a new initiative from Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn, Welshpool town centre has been included in his plans to roll out a new system across the Dyfed-Powys area.
“I’d like to reassure you that Welshpool is included in the programme of works which will see a reinvestment in CCTV across the force area as part of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s commitment,” CCTV Project Board Chair, Chief Superintendent Steve Cockwell, told us.
“The CCTV Project Team is currently working with the contractor to produce a definitive timeline for the programme of works and details will be published in due course. It is anticipated that the work in Welshpool will be concluded prior to the end of this calendar year.
“The Project Team has met with representatives from Welshpool Town Council and I can confirm that the project will be funded by Dyfed-Powys Police, which in turn will provide savings for Welshpool Town Council.”
However, Town Clerk Robert Robinson said that while the police may be covering the town centre, the rest of the town will still be under the watchful eye of a separate system operated by the town council.
“What is being proposed is that the new police system will cover the main town centre, this will leave us with seven of our cameras available for use elsewhere,” he explained.
“The idea is to add these seven to the other outer area cameras so that we have two systems. One for the Town Centre and one for outlying areas. For example, there is CCTV coverage at the Country Park, Maes y dre, entrance to Oldford Estate, Motte and Bailey etc.”
“There will therefore not be a saving as we will continue to run the outer system.”
The Police project will bring 116 CCTV cameras to the towns identified as priority camera locations through crime analysis and stakeholder consultation.
The cameras will bring high definition CCTV imagery to a central monitoring system at Police Headquarters. There will also be monitoring facilities at local stations allowing local officers to monitor their local cameras with the touch of a button. Officers will also be able to review CCTV on their mobile data devices.
PICTURE: Assistant Chief Constable Richard Lewis, Baydale’s South West Area Manager Jeremy Owens and Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn.
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