Agenda item

Report attached.

The report before Members gave an update on the delay to the roll out of the CCTV refresh programme, proposed new timescale and review of the technical and premises requirements for the new CCTV control room.

Officers advised that there had been a delay to the programme as the previous lead officer had left the Council in June leading to the recruitment of a permanent Head of Enforcement and Safety.

Officers advised that additional works had taken place to review whether any possible additional medium or long term savings could be found.

Members noted that the most significant costs were for the groundworks required for fibre optic cabling.

Officers were currently investigating whether groundworks could be undertaken as part of other planned highways works if this could be done then there was an opportunity for significant savings from the CCTV capital allocation.

Members noted that once investigations had been carried out the CCTV refresh rollout would commence in November

A CCTV Project Management Group had been set up and would be working on a range of immediate CCTV improvements and interventions, to upgrade elements of the system where these could be built in to the wider refresh.

Officers explained that the CCTV control room had to be moved from Mercury House and officers were still in discussions regarding an alternative site.

The proposed CCTV control room had a number of pre-requisites including security, secure building and secure access to users and secure storage of data.

The location of the building accommodating the Control Room also needed to be appropriate to receive the images from the cameras. It was additionally preferable, that the height of the building allowed for the transmission to be received in close proximity to the Control Room.

Retention of the Control Room within Havering presented opportunities to co-locate other 24 hour and operational services, such as Careline Wardens, Environmental and Tactical Enforcement Officers, Officers responsible for Parking/MTCs ad Public Protection and Licensing staff.

Members noted that following analysis of potential options for re-location, it was suggested that the new central equipment and CCTV Control Centre was accommodated in the borough, within a Council owned premises and preferably close to Romford Town Centre. This would allow relocation costs were kept to a minimum and also ensure limited system downtime.

In response to a question relating to the delay in works taking place officers responded by stating that discussions had taken place with contractors, Housing officers and the Digital Infrastructure team. The delay had come about due to the re-location of the communications equipment that was currently located on the roof of Mercury House.

Officers also advised that it was important that the new infrastructure was located in the correct areas that would lead to a more efficient use of the new system.

In response to a question relating to the timescales relating to the completion of the works, officers confirmed that the completion date would probably be approximately 18 months away.

Updates would be taken before Cabinet and it was suggested that the Sub-Committee be updated as the works progressed.    

The Sub-Committee noted the contents of the report.