Issue - meetings

The Community Safety Operations Manager attended the meeting to present an update to the Committee on the current status of work to remove trees obscuring the sightlines of a number of CCTV Cameras. At previous meetings Members had expressed concern that the safety of communities was being put at risk by the effect trees were having on the coverage of CCTV cameras.

The Community Safety Operations Manager outlined the process which had to be carried out to trim or remove trees so that they no longer obscured the view of CCTV cameras. If a tree was subject to a Tree Preservation Order (TPO), planning consent would need to be obtained from the relevant planning committee prior to any alterations being made to the tree. Trees without TPOs could be trimmed or removed without the need for planning permission which made the process of dealing with obscuration much quicker.

There were currently a significant number of trees obscuring various cameras throughout the Borough which would take time to deal with. Once the current issues with tree obscuration had been dealt with a plan would need to be put in place whereby CCTV staff were able to anticipate future obstruction by growing tree so that action could be taken before issues arose.

The Committee was keen to ensure that community safety was maintained at all times, by making sure that no CCTV cameras were obscured. The Committee also recognised that it was important acknowledge the adverse effects of poor lighting in an area covered by CCTV cameras. The Committee wanted to ensure that these issues were also dealt with by Officers.

There was no specific budget for the work that needed to be carried out and the cost of the work was being borne by Highways and Streetscape as they were responsible for the trimming of trees under their jurisdiction. The Committee was keen to see a specific budget for the work associated with maintaining the effectiveness of CCTV cameras so that the budgets and duties of Highways and Streetscape were not adversely affected by the extra work.

The Portfolio Holder for Communities and Regulatory Services was in attendance and addressed the Committee by thanking them for their work and that she would do what see could to help improve the situation regarding obscuration of CCTV cameras.

RESOLVED:

(a)   That the report be received.

(b)   That the Community Safety Operations Manager be requested to formally document the process by which the removal of tree obscuration is carried out and present it to the Committee at a future meeting.

(c)   That it be recommended to Cabinet that a budget for tackling tree obscuration should be included in the next annual budget for the Safer Communities department. 

(d)   That the Committee write formally to the Portfolio Holder for Communities and Regulatory Services to express their belief that the process to ensure that CCTV cameras are not obscured should be reviewed to improve the process in order to protect community safety.