Cheshire East considers future operation of CCTV service to reduce costs

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Options for how Cheshire East Council's CCTV service could be redesigned are to be discussed by councillors next week, ahead of a planned public consultation on the proposals.

The council's CCTV service operates all year round on a 24/7 basis and dealt with more than 20,000 incidents during the 17 months between April 2023 and October 2024.

Cheshire East Council has 165 fixed cameras and 25 mobile/deployable cameras which are used in hot spot areas to target antisocial behaviour, fly tipping etc. The CCTV control room also monitors 138 additional cameras in car parks, retail parks and some Council facilities. Demand for new camera installation/use and surveillance activity has increased in the past 5 years.

CCTV has a gross budget of £684,185 which includes staffing costs of £519,730 (76%) Income generation is approximately £232k leaving a net cost of £452k per annum.

The service provides and supports a wide range of functions and services. Activities are not just crime prevention, camera observation and evidence provision but an extension of other Council services including Highways, Housing, Regulatory Services etc. In these circumstances the CCTV service acts as an out of hours contact point reducing the need for separately funded arrangements.

As part of its medium-term financial strategy (MTFS) for 2025 to 2029, the council is carrying out a review of how the CCTV service could be run in the future, with the aim of it being able to generate more income and reduce its operating costs.

A series of options are now being proposed for how this could be achieved and will be discussed by the council's Environment and Communities Committee on Thursday, 30th January.

The options include making changes to staff shift patterns based on when demand is greatest. Other options include a minor restructure of the service, reducing the amount of 'live' surveillance – relying on recorded footage instead – and stopping the service completely.

The following four options have been considered:

Do Nothing: Retain the Service with no changes
This option would maintain CCTV service delivery as it currently exists; Two twelve-hour shifts with two operators per shift on a 24/7/365 footprint.

Retain the Service with minor restructure
Within this model it has been identified that there is scope to restructure the team releasing savings of circa £41,000.
Summary - no impact to current service delivery levels, retaining potential to grow income generating services going forward.

Full directed observation operations with reduced staff support
The development of a 'linked shift' rota would seek to reduce the number of operators on shift during the 24-hour period on weekdays (36 paid hours per day reduced from 48 hours). Weekends, where demand and risks of harm are greater, would continue with 2 operators per shift. Savings to gross budget £71,000.
Summary - small reduction to current service delivery levels, retaining current income with potential to grow further going forward.

A mix of direct observation and recorded surveillance with reduced staff support
The peak demand shift would operate over a working week with two 11- hour shifts between 7am and 11pm creating a six-hour cross over period between 12pm and 6pm. There would be no operator cover between 11 pm and 7 am each day instead there would be camera recording only. Savings to gross budget £200,000
Summary - significant impact to service delivery – knock on impacts to current income. Reduction in future income due to diminished 'live' service.

Cease all CCTV operations
The option to cease all CCTV provision would create a potential permanent revenue saving of £450k per annum, as the net costs of the service after income that would no longer be generated has been deducted. This value however be subject to the initial year 1 deductions of staff severance costs and in the longer-term the cost implications of decommissioning the CCTV network.

The CCTV service attracts income from town and parish councils and other more ad-hoc sources including external CCTV monitoring, alarm and barrier monitoring, door entry services and lone worker alarm monitoring. The majority of income (84%) is from town and parish council contributions for directed CCTV surveillance on the 24/7/365 operational model. Income has increased by 33% over the last five years with new external monitoring contracts, increased fees and charges and the introduction of new chargeable services.

As part of the service review there has also been consideration of greater income generation opportunity particularly given the recent completion of the Borough wide wireless network installation which provides an enhanced infrastructure to support wider system support.

This work includes the following proposals;

  • Attract new contracts for monitoring other CCTV systems.
  • Council wide contract review to determine services that may be brought 'in-house' and reduce Council spend (ongoing with procurement and facilities).
  • Scoping chargeable out of hours provision for neighbouring authorities.
  • A further maintenance contract review to reduce contract costs.

Councillor Mick Warren, chair of the environment and communities committee, said: "The value of CCTV is well-recognised, and the council's CCTV service continues to be in high demand from both internal and external partners to the council.

"The commitment to deliver this service – which is a discretionary and not statutory service – does however need to be balanced against the resources available to the council, which continues to operate in a very challenging financial climate.

"Significant work has already been done and remains ongoing to reduce costs and generate additional income from the CCTV service, so that it can remain sustainable, and we are now proposing to get feedback from the public and partners on four options for how the service could operate in the future.

"To be clear, no final decisions have been made, and subject to committee approval, a four-week public consultation is expected to launch next month."

It is envisaged that the consultation will run from early February 2025 over a 6 week period with final dates to be publicised in due course.

Following the public consultation, final proposals will be developed and taken back to the environment and communities committee for a decision, with the aim that any changes would go live at the start of the financial year 2025/2026.

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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Andy Brown
Thursday 23rd January 2025 at 9:38 am
Cease all CCTV operations to save money and watch how much the increased crime rate will cost.
Kelvin Briggs
Wednesday 29th January 2025 at 9:48 am
Seriously in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water?

How about spending the new income stream from the Ryleys Lane car park charging scheme to fund it? Ah, I see a problem.

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