The Borough Council’s Executive will review the Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) contract at its meeting on 29 November 2022 – to consider contract changes and re-tender for a new maintenance contract from February 2024.
Ipswich Borough Council operates CCTV cameras around the town centre, several out-of-town shopping parades plus Council owned facilities. Cameras are monitored from an Emergency Service Centre at Grafton House 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with footage used to support investigations. CCTV footage has recently enabled convictions for knife and drug crimes.
This service is important for maintaining a feeling of safety and security in public areas, for deterring, detecting and investigating any potential criminal activity noted, and, for protecting Council property and buildings.
Executive will consider a recommendation to agree a short contact extension plus increase in value, to allow the current supplier to complete the ongoing CCTV upgrade made possible thanks to Home Office Safer Streets funding. Executive is also being asked to approve a request to tender and procure a new CCTV support and maintenance contract from 1 February 2024.
26 new CCTV cameras with improved picture quality are being installed this year in key areas including Princes Street, Tavern Street, Lloyds Avenue and the Buttermarket area as well as Stoke Bridge, Ipswich Rail Station and Neptune Marina.
Councillor Alasdair Ross, Ipswich Borough Council portfolio holder for Community Protection and Health, said:
“CCTV has proved highly effective in Ipswich by helping to monitor our streets so that people feel safe and supports police investigations. Our 24/7 monitoring helps to locate lost children and has even allowed us to quickly spot a fire in Tavern Street and direct teams to extinguish it before it caused major damage, we were also able to bring the culprit to the attention of the police.”
“It is important that as a responsible authority we carry out reviews to ensure that our maintenance and support contracts continue meet our needs. In the case of CCTV cameras in place, there are improvements being made, so it is timely to review our maintenance needs to ensure that from 2024 our contract requirements are updated and agreed.”
Ipswich Borough Council has operated town centre CCTV since March 1994. The current CCTV contract was agreed in August 2018 to 2023 (with the option to extend by a further two years).
If approved by Executive, the current provider will continue until 31 January 2024 while a new contract is agreed from 1 February 2024.
The Executive Meeting to discuss this matter, starts at 6pm on Tuesday 29 November. For the agenda and meeting papers visit: Agenda for Executive on Tuesday 29th November 2022, 6.00 pm | Democracy Online | Ipswich Borough Council
