The Chief Officer Environmental & Operational Services presented an update report on the feasibility of merging the Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) and the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (TWBC) CCTV Control Rooms and proposed to establish a West Kent CCTV hub, based at the Sevenoaks Office.

The proposal, depending upon the monitoring option taken forward, could provide a return to 24/7 manned monitoring whilst achieving identified savings on monitoring costs and increasing resilience in the control room, particularly for the out of hours service.

The Chief Officer Environmental & Operational Services reported updated figures for Option D, advising that the potential savings were less than those quoted in the report at £18,000 for SDC, £21,000 for T&MBC and £10,000 for TWBC.  However it was likely that this could be even less if the monitoring arrangements were exposed to competitive tendering.

Public Sector Equality Duty

Members noted that consideration had been given to impacts under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Resolved:  That it be recommended to Cabinet, that

a)   in principle, a joint agreement be entered into with TWBC and T&MBC to establish a West Kent CCTV hub, based at the Sevenoaks offices;

b)   the preferred monitoring arrangements be Option A as set out within the report

‘24 hour CCTV coverage and out of hours service for all 3 Councils.  This model includes a dedicated Supervisor and 12 operators.  This provides, mainly for three operators to be on duty, but at certain less busy times this will be reduced to 2 operators.  Estimated Cost: £104,933 per Council; and

c)   a one-off Capital budget of £37,300 be approved, representing 50% of the cost of enlarging the existing Sevenoaks CCTV control room.