Consultation opens on changes to Shrewsbury CCTV provision
As Shropshire Council makes £62.5m savings from its budget this year to survive financially, a public consultation on how it runs and funds CCTV monitoring in Shrewsbury town centre has opened.
Shrewsbury is the only Shropshire town where the council funds and runs a 24/7 monitored CCTV service.
However, to close its budget gap, the council is reviewing non-mandatory services and see if it can provide these more efficiently.
Its budget plans are for £62.5m in savings in 2024/25 and all non-statutory services are under review. The Medium-Term Financial Strategy, agreed in February, identifies a £334,000 saving through a new model for Shrewsbury town centre CCTV monitoring and out of hours emergency call handling.
Preferred option
The council’s preferred option would retain 24/7 CCTV coverage but cease round the clock active monitoring of CCTV with staff prioritising out of hours emergency calls for key council services.
Under the preferred option, Police would still be able to acquire footage to help investigate crimes and some live monitoring would remain on a “best endeavours” basis as and when staff are not handling out of hours calls and active monitoring of specific events agreed with police such as Shrewsbury Town “derby” home match days, funded by partner grants.
Currently, Shropshire Council wholly funds the costs to staff and run CCTV monitoring for Shrewsbury. In other towns in Shropshire, CCTV is run and funded by the town or parish council. These arrangements are a legacy of arrangements when Shropshire Council was formed in 2009.
The council is also seeking £40,000 a year from partners for the cost to maintain the CCTV network, which to date has been met by Shropshire Council.
Other options being consulted
Other options being consulted on include working with partners to develop CCTV volunteer monitoring, although this would be unlikely to provide a 24/7 monitoring service, while partners could also fund extra CCTV staff to provide more active monitoring capacity.
Councillor Robert Macey, Cabinet member for culture and digital, said:
“We face a very difficult financial situation, due to rising costs and the growing demand for our services particularly social care, which accounts for £4 in every £5 we spend.
“If we are to survive financially, we must review all non-statutory services we provide, such as CCTV monitoring and look at how we can do this more efficiently or in some cases stop altogether.
“Our preferred option would keep CCTV in Shrewsbury town centre and continue to support police investigations and the safety of residents and businesses while making a significant savings by altering how we monitor CCTV, helping us becoming financially sustainable.
“This is one of a number of very tough decisions that we do not want to make but we have to if we are to survive financially.”
If you cannot access the survey online, you can go to one of our Libraries or Shropshire Local in Ludlow and Shrewsbury, who can assist you.
Drop in event
A drop in consultation event for businesses is planned for 2 September at the Shropshire Local unit in the Darwin Shopping Centre, Shrewsbury, from 5pm to 7pm.
Have your say
The consultation sets out a number of options for consultation which will run until 4 September. To give your view go to shropshire.gov.uk/cctvshrews.
