£1m for crime cameras

Home Secretary Jack Straw announced today that the city has won its bid for cash to install more closed circuit TV cameras.

The approval of 22 new cameras has been welcomed by councillors and traders, who have been pushing for the £1.3 million scheme to go ahead since plans were drawn up last June.

The announcement follows hard on the heels of Friday's revelation in the Telegraph & Argus that a public-private sector partnership is to be established to bring millions of pounds of European and Government funding into Bradford to tackle problems of crime, cleanliness and maintenance.

The city's Crime and Disorder Partnership - made up of the council, police, traders and other organisations - put the bid for the hi-tech CCTV network together last year, following an independent survey pinpointing areas which would benefit from cameras.

Councillor John Ruding, the Council's spokesman for community safety, said the £979,279 CCTV grant was the biggest made to any city in Britain and called it "an outstanding piece of work" from the public and private partnership.

The cash will be combined with more than £300,000 raised through local funding to make £1.3 million.

"We are extremely pleased the Government has provided this money and we believe the system will be a major step forward in delivering our strategy to reduce crime and the fear of crime in the city," Coun Ruding said.

The sites of the cameras had been chosen not because they were particular trouble spots, but because they would provide the best comprehensive cover.

They will include cameras in the city centre at the Hall Ings and Bridge Street and the Market Street and Cheapside junctions as well as further out of the city centre at locations including the Smith Street and Morley Street and the Drewton Road and Westgate junctions.

"The biggest benefactor is the general public," he said.

"We want to attract people to the city centre and for them to feel safe when they come shopping here. We found cameras were overwhelmingly the one thing that makes people feel safe."

The 22 new city centre cameras will consolidate the existing CCTV network in Bradford, mainly focused on Council car parks, subways and Centenary Square. This system will be modernised and the control rooms at Shipley, Bingley and Keighley will be centralised in Bradford at Brittania House where the entire district will be watched 24 hours a day.

In addition, £15,000 of the money will provide mobile CCTV cameras, which will be deployed to outlying districts of Bradford should a particular problem with crime occur.

Coun Ruding said: "Concerns have been raised that cameras in the city centre could move problems elsewhere. The mobile system will allow us to tackle problems in outlying areas of the district on a temporary basis."

And Chief Inspector Joan Simpson, Bradford Area Community Safety Co-ordinator, said: "We're delighted. I'm confident it will have an impact on crime and the fear of crime in the Bradford district."

Traders also welcomed the news.

Chairman of Bradford Retail Action Group Jeff Frankel said: "We're absolutely delighted - the system is desperately needed.

"It will bring benefits to everyone, shoppers and traders alike. Hopefully it will attract more people into the city centre, knowing they are safe."

Donald Pickup, who sits on the steering group at Rawson Market, said: "The more security cameras we have, the better.

"I welcome the plans and wish they could put them up everywhere. At last the public can feel safer."

Manager of Bradford's Kirkgate Centre Catherine Riley said: "It's brilliant news.

"Bradford was one of the first cities to install CCTV and technology has moved on a lot since then. It's excellent that we'll be able to bring our system up to date. We're very pleased."

Co-ordinators at Bradford's One in Twelve Club have voiced concern that the cameras will turn Bradford into a "giant shopping mall".

Spokesman Pete Chapman said: "This massive increase in surveillance will have little impact on crime, but is a vital part of a process of social control."

But Coun Ruding said the system will act as a strong deterrent to potential law-breakers. "The message is they cannot commit crime without having a strong chance of being brought to justice," he said.

It will also play a vital role in alerting police to incident scenes. "The police at Bradford and Keighley will have their own monitors allowing the operators to contact them and highlight particular shots on the screen. For example, if there was a problem at Kirkgate, they could ring the police and show them the incident allowing them to make the appropriate response."

He said: "We recognise some people's concerns about privacy and the trained operators will follow the highest codes of practice."

David Haigh, chairman of the Bradford Inner City Licensees' Association, said: "It's about time they spent money up north instead of in London.

"It can only help to make Bradford a safer places and therefore more vibrant because, once the threat has been taken away, people will feel more comfortable about coming into the city centre.

"It will also help deter the idiots.

"A lot of our members have CCTV in their establishments linked to video recorders which the police use quite frequently, and this is a further step.

"It's something the Government should be looking at in all city centre, especially in car parks where people's property is more vulnerable."

The grant to Bradford is part of a £33 million package from the Government - the largest single allocation of CCTV money to date.

It will include £147,000 for an additional seven CCTV cameras for Dewsbury town centre, bringing the total there to 23.

Making the announcement, The Home Secretary said: "CCTV is playing a crucial role in helping police the police combat crime and, importantly reduce the fear of crime."

The Partnership told him that Bradford had 80 pubs and bars of which 25 had special hours licences and attracted a million visitors a year to the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television.

But the city centre has become a crime hotspot for vehicle crime, damage and drugs.

The scheme currently running in the city was one of the earliest in the country when it was installed nine years but is now out of date.

T&A Opinion

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