Blackpool school children had the last word when it came to urging people to have some respect for their town.
Local youngsters helped bring to life a new ‘talking CCTV’ campaign, in which their winning podcasts were broadcast across the streets of the town centre.
The new audio CCTV initiative was launched in an effort to further curb anti-social behaviour in the town centre, as well publicly embarrass people for unacceptable activities, such as litter dropping.
A total of 10 of Blackpool’ CCTV cameras have been installed with tailor-made audio equipment designed to broadcast a mixture of pre-recorded crime and community safety messages, as well as single out offenders in ‘real time’ that their actions are being monitored and to stop what they are doing.
Blackpool is one o 20 of the recently announced Respect Action Areas that ha secured the funding (£25,000) to carry out the new project – which went live this month.
As part of the new campaign, the community safety partnership, BSafe Blackpool, enlisted the support of local primary and secondary school pupils to suggest what some of the key messages ought to be. Their ‘pester power’ can be used in a positive way to tell the grown-ups what behaviour they want to see, and what they don’t.
The winning audio clips were submitted by Anchorsholme Primary School and Beacon Hill High School, with Claremont and St Cuthberts primary schools also singled out for praise. The overall prize was for a handful of winning pupils to be given a tour of the CCTV control room at Blackpool Police station as well as being the first to use the newly installed audio system.
In addition, BSafe Blackpool has donated a new iPod for their schools. The town centre CCTV cameras have, for many years acted as an effective deterrent in the town, in tackling street drinking, noise nuisance, criminal damage and public disorder, as well as capturing crucial evidence of an incident.
The new audio technology will further extend these powers, giving the control room the opportunity to target specific offenders in a very direct and public manner, which in turn provides further reassurance to residents, visitors and businesses, both day-time and night-time, who want a clean and safe place to live, work and visit.
The new CCTV equipment follows the announcement earlier this year that Blackpool is one of the UK’s 40 new Respect Action Areas. The selection is designed to help unlock additional funding and support, enabling community leaders to further tackle the problems of anti-social behaviour and further target residents’ needs.
