Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED

that the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 22^nd March, 2018 be received and approved as a correct record.

The Chairman gave a brief overview of the work undertaken to date in relation to the review of CCTV.  The objective for the review was to gain an understanding of CCTV, how it contributes to the Council’s Corporate Priorities and consider the impact CCTV has within the community.

The Chairman explained that to date the Panel had held two meetings to discuss the topic whereby Members had sought information to gain an understanding of Ashfield District Council’s CCTV provision, how the service operates and whether there were further areas that could be explored and improved to ensure that the CCTV provision within the District was effective and fit for purpose.

The Chairman also reported that a site visited to the CCTV Control Room at Sherwood Lodge was undertaken on the 21^st March to enable Panel Members and Officers to gain a better understanding of the system, how it operates, the staffing resources and examine the quality of the imaging.

Members were advised that the site visit was both interesting and beneficial and provided an insight into how the cameras were used and the quality of imaging that could be obtained, which included being able to zoom in to face level whilst retaining exceptional definition.

The Service Manager – Democratic and Scrutiny Services then proceeded to give a brief update to bring the new Members on the Panel up to speed with the review thus far. 

He explained that there were a number of action points that were agreed at the last meeting to progress the review however, due to the change in the political administration of the Council, these had not been undertaken.  He assured the Panel that plans were in place to reschedule this work and a series of informal meetings would be held with the Community Protection Team, Commercialism Team and any other relevant Departments to assist the Panel in their deliberations.

Furthermore, a second visit to the CCTV Control Room was being organised for any Panel Member wanting to view the format and ask questions of the operatives based there.

The Service Manager – Democratic and Scrutiny Services also informed the Panel that he had recently met with the Portfolio Holder who has the executive responsibility for Community Safety.  Going forward partnership meetings with stakeholders and the Portfolio Holder would be scheduled to discuss any concerns and questions that Members felt were relevant to the review. 

Additional information provided by the Service Manager – Community Safety was circulated to Members at the meeting in respect of the CCTV budget for 2017/18 and 2018/19 and data illustrating incident categories and CCTV statistics for the period April 2017 to April 2018.

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting Rebecca Whitehead, the Council’s Service Manager – Community Safety who was in attendance to provide an overview of the current CCTV provision and assist the Panel with the review and possible outcomes.

The Service Manager - Community Safety briefly outlined the current position in respect of the provision of CCTV.  She  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.