LEIGH Park in Westbury Leigh has been without CCTV now for 18 months. At the recent full town council meeting, councillors debated whether it made financial sense to replace the two cameras in Leigh Park as all cameras in the town are set to be upgraded to a ‘futureproofed’ wireless system in 2023.
It was decided that the town council would contact the contractor to see if the proposed cameras would work with the new, yet to be implemented CCTV system.
The two wireless cameras in Leigh Park, located on the community building and overlooking the roundabout by the surgery on Mane Way, stopped working almost two years ago. After an investigation in 2021, it was discovered that a solution could be found by installing a Network Video Recorder (NVR) to enable control from the monitoring station. However, there is a concern that one of the cameras is not compatible with NVR and so it may need to be replaced at a cost of £1,456.
At the recent full town council meeting cllr Matt Dean said, “This is an area, in my view, that needs CCTV and we’ve acknowledged that in the past. Surely there will be cameras on the market that are compatible with the new system and surely we just need to find a contractor that can fit some cameras now, so that we don’t have a gap of another year, possibly longer, with no coverage in that area at all.
“I would like to formally request that our clerk goes back to the contractor and ask if there is any way that these cameras can be used for the new system, if we were to purchase these new cameras. If this is a possibility, then I suggest that we go ahead with the expenditure and if they’re not, then I suggest we stick to the original proposal and we ‘accept the risk’ of no CCTV in the area until next year.”
The town council has committed £73,300 capital funding to replace the CCTV in its entirety, early in 2023, with a fit-for-purpose and ‘futureproofed’ wireless system.
Cllr Gordon King spoke about the financial sense it made to wait for this complete overhaul of the CCTV system saying, “I have no memory of any accident, any incident or anybody ever coming to the town council to complain about issues in the area. There’s one thing being cautious, but nevertheless there has not been an abundance of issues in this location in all the time that the CCTV cameras were down. It makes good financial sense to wait a little bit longer, to take part in a full restructuring and recommissioning of the CCTV systems in town.”
Back in January there was an incident of anti-social behaviour recorded at the community centre in the park. Police issued a dispersal order after a 15-year-old girl verbally abused, punched and kicked a police officer. Upon checking the Westbury area crime map, there have been relatively few incidents of crime or anti-social behaviour in Leigh Park in the past two years.
The Westbury area crime map can be found at www.police.uk/pu/your-area/wiltshire-police/ warminster/?tab=CrimeMap
The town council agreed to speak to the contractor that may supply the new cameras, to advise the council on what could be compatible with the new system in 2023. A new company has not yet been appointed to provide the new camera system for 2023, as the town council is in the process of drawing up the procurement and tender contract.
