Huntingdonshire District Council offers an example of Best Value in CCTV in action, our August 2001 print edition reported.
Huntingdonshire District Council offers an example of Best Value in action. Last October the contract control room staff returned in-house. Frank Cannon, Community Safety Officer with responsibility for CCTV, explains that the council took community safety as a pilot for Best Value. The three-year control room contract had the option of a further four years without a re-tender. The Best Value reviewers decided to test the market. Frank says: ?I was asked to put a bench-mark bid in, and I actually won it, both on price and quality.? The Tory council agreed, and the in-house control room (at the council head office) has worked well since, offering him more control and flexibility, he reports: ?Everything before staff-wise had to be done through the contractor. It hasn?t been easy, because in the past if we were short-staffed I would get on to the contractors – we haven?t got that luxury. Staff do feel much more part of the organisation, and we can amend and adapt their duties without having to go back to the contractor all the time.? The control room provides an out of hours call-answering service for the district?s housing partnership; and monitors car park cameras for Hinchinbrooke Hospital. The district has 78 cameras, mainly domes, and has a bid with the Home Office for another 17. The cameras cover four market towns – mainly the centres, car parks, and council recreation centres. In Huntingdon, cameras cover a couple of shopping areas on housing estates. The district is quite a pioneer in internet-openness: the CCTV code of practice and the district crime and disorder strategy are posted on the council website. Copies of the code are also in local authority premises covered by cameras, and police stations and libraries. The aim is to reassure people that CCTV is not a secret; hence the authority is producing an A4 leaflet explaining the system and the citizen?s rights and data protection safeguards.
