Councillors in Midlothian, south of Edinburgh, have agreed to replace 56 old CCTV cameras in and around its town centres, with multi-sensor cameras; and, to buy besides wireless, redeployable cameras that can be moved to anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping hotspots. That’s unremarkable; councils across the UK have been renewing their typically analogue-era CCTV kit, and in particular procuring re-deployables to cover ‘hot spot areas’, whether to allay community safety concerns, or to detect or deter anti-social behaviour and environmental crimes, such as tipping. This renewal will add £471,860 to the capital plan in 2021-22 and an addition to the annual revenue budget of £97,622 from 2022-23.
Midlothian’s public space CCTV system is also unremarkable in terms of size and spread: its 56 cameras cover main streets in the towns of Dalkeith, where the council is based; Penicuik, Bonnyrigg, Danderhall, Loanhead, Mayfield, Gorebridge, Roslin and Newtongrange; and Sheriffhall Park and Ride, just off the Edinburgh southern bypass.
What is remarkable is that as a council report puts it, in February 2018, ‘as a result of financial pressures’, Midlothian Council agreed through its Financial Strategy Report to manage a reduction of all open space CCTV activity and ‘delete’ the Community Safety team, which oversaw the CCTV. The Community Safety team was disbanded in February 2019. Since then, according to the report, the role of the Community Safety and Justice Manager has focused solely on Community Justice ‘which sits in a legislative framework’. In other words, the funding for that post comes exclusively from a (temporary) Scottish Government grant. As a council report put it, that ‘placed an even greater reliance on partnership working’ – in other words, other bodies than the council had to work on community safety, as it was not spending anything. However as the report added, given that there was no framework to take forward actions, ‘the Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) Strategy has not been progressed since 2019’. The council has costed setting up a Community Safety Team of eight anew at a minimum £419,428 a year – with a manager on £68k, and officers on £36k; besides seconded police.
Has crime and disorder not happened in Midlothian in the last couple of years?! The report stated that the cameras continue to operate until a fault develops and, ‘if unable to be repaired at minimal cost, are thereafter switched off and signage added to indicate that they are not active’. Most, 40 of the public space CCTV cameras are described as ‘operational’, and 16 units non-operational. Issues around cabling and the analogue nature of the majority of the cameras means that the assets are limited in their use, lifespan and will deteriorate further without maintenance or upgrading. This is of a piece with a council report of 2015 which described the CCTV cameras – dating from 2006 to 2009 – as ‘outdated’ and their repairs as ‘increasingly difficult’. In that year Midlothian had 64 public space cameras; but a total of 293, with far more in schools, libraries and leisure centres; the latest report does not say what became of them.
In 2015 council monitoring of its cameras was already on a ‘reactive’ basis, for cost reasons. Police Scotland monitor the Midlothian cameras, at Dalkeith Police Station.
Midlothian Council’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for community safety, Councillor Stephen Curran said: “Everyone has the right to feel safe and protected within their communities and replacing these cameras will help tackle and prevent crime. I know the public will also be pleased to hear we’ll have cameras that can be rapidly deployed and trained on areas known for antisocial behaviour and fly tipping, two issues which can have a profoundly negative impact on local people’s quality of life.”
