Newark and Sherwood District Council increases and improves CCTV to help tackle anti-social behaviour

The District Council’s CCTV system includes over 70 cameras and plays a vital role in tackling ASB and crime, providing evidence following reported incidents, and helping to identify and deter offenders.

An additional three cameras will be installed, and four existing CCTV cameras have been replaced in Newark, thanks to funding achieved under the partnership approach to the Safer Streets 4 project. Various spates of ASB have been reported in this area, and the previous cameras were replaced in order to greatly improve the picture quality and hotspot areas were identified for the new cameras to be installed. The District Council worked with partners from Nottinghamshire Police and Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner to deliver this project, and recently announced a fifth round of Safer Streets funding in Balderton, Newark.

Several re-deployable, high-definition CCTV cameras were also funded by previous Safer Streets projects and were installed in hotspot areas to provide increased coverage of locations affected by crime.

Councillor Paul Taylor, Portfolio Holder for Public Protection and Community Relations at Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “Our 24-hour CCTV network is a fantastic tool to ensure community safety, and improving and increasing the cameras allows our officers, and our partners, to detect and deter perpetrators of crime and ASB.  I am committed to ensuring that our CCTV network grows and improves and through our successful partnership approach with Nottinghamshire Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner, I am confident that we are doing all we can in our effort to reduce ASB and crime.

“We are seeing a reduction of ASB in certain hotspot areas such as our town centre wards of Castle, Beacon and Devon, as stated in the recent Bassetlaw, Newark and Sherwood Community Safety Partnership (BNSCSP) report. I know this reduction is down to the programme of measures we have been implementing, including partnership working, increasing officer visibility, and improvements to security measures such as gating and CCTV. I am looking forward to seeing what we can achieve as we continue with our already proven successful partnership working approach.”

The District Council’s ASB working group has previously considered the CCTV system currently operating and recommended a full review take place and in December this review including the replacement scheme will be presented at Cabinet for consideration.

The location of the District Council’s CCTV cameras is reviewed on an annual basis to ensure they continue to meet the legal requirements to remain, and the data collected is also used to identify the need for targeted and increased patrols, the timings of these patrols and particular locations and individuals of concern.

In addition to this, through a shared service agreement, Ashfield District Council and Broxtowe Borough Council CCTV cameras are also monitored, maintained and managed by the partnership control room, outside of Newark and Sherwood.

Find out more on the District Council website: https://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/your-district/public-protection/crime-prevention/cctv/

Watch a short video from Councillor Paul Taylor here: https://youtu.be/oYbU6l2iBBg?si=0Ygfrb-GtFwMgjSo