Cabinet Endorses CCTV Shared Prosperity Proposals

Stratford-on-Avon District Council's Cabinet has approved the direct award of UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) grant funding of £200,000 to carry out vital work to upgrade CCTV infrastructure, software and equipment.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a three-year funding deal. Funding is to be spent across the three themes of: communities and place, business support and people and skills. One of the specific objectives within the Shared Prosperity Fund Prospectus is Built & Landscaped Environment to 'design out crime' (E5) intervention. Stratford-on-Avon District Council will utilise the Shared Prosperity funding for four key initiatives:

• CCTV data storage upgrade
• Five new CCTV Camera Replacements
• Stratford-upon-Avon Recreation Ground Wireless System Upgrade
• Eight new re-deployable camera upgrades

Stratford-on-Avon District Council operates a 24-hour CCTV control room which covers nine towns and parishes across the District. Working in partnership with Warwickshire Police and other key agencies, the team deal with over 14,000 incidents per year. Not all incidents relate to criminal activity, CCTV has played a key role in supporting vulnerable people with welfare related incidents, environmental management by monitoring flooding, road traffic accidents and flagging incidents to partner agencies to allow them to deal with issues more effectively.

The new CCTV cameras will replace cameras in Wood Street and Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, High Street in Henley-in-Arden and High Street in Bidford-on-Avon. All these areas have a high footfall and therefore the cameras are used more.

The District Council currently uses a number of re-deployable cameras to respond to crime and anti-social behaviour hotspots. This proposal would allow an upgrade of the five cameras reaching the end of their useful life together with additional three cameras to be used for events and emerging hotspot areas. By upgrading these areas, the CCTV operators will be able to provide a much better-quality image and higher evidence quality to support our partner agencies and enhance community safety locally.

Public consultation shows that residents feel that crime is a principal area they wish to see more investment from authorities. The Stratford Citizens Panel 2020 revealed that residents wished to see the greatest increases in spending relating to CCTV and crime reduction in the District.

The function of the CCTV control room contributes significantly to the prevention and detection of crime which is a statutory duty of Stratford District Council under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. This upgrade also aligns with the District Council's new Council Plan 2023-27 objectives which aims to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

Councillor Natalie Gist (Lib Dem), Law and Governance Portfolio Holder and Chair of the South Warwickshire CSP said: "I am very pleased that Cabinet has decided to support our bid to the SPF to upgrade the CCTV provision for the District. Residents consistently let us know that crime reduction and prevention is very important to them. Our CCTV service helps support our work and that of our partners in helping to keep residents safe."