Agenda item

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – RESOURCES

This report provides an update on the activities of the Officer Management Board since the last meeting of the Joint Executive in October. It includes the following:

·             Forecast financial position for 2024/25.

·             Budget for 2025/26.

·             Update on the capital upgrade to the control room operating system/equipment and maintenance costs.

·             Updates in relation to operational performance.

RESOLVED: That the Joint Executive provided comments and noted the report.

REASON FOR DECISION: To agree the strategic and policy issues in relation to the CCTV Partnership. They therefore receive regular updates from the Officer Management Board.

The Service Director – Resources presented the report entitled ‘CCTV Officer Management Board and Operations Manager Report‘ and advised that:

·             The budget and forecast for 2024/25 were detailed in paragraph 8.1 of the report with the vacant staff position reflected within these and the variance to the budget. The CCTV Operations Manager had been covering the work arising from the vacant position on a temporary overtime basis, but a more permanent solution would need to be found.

·             The table at paragraph 8.2 showed the budget and forecast for 2024/25 as a split between the partners of the Joint Executive.

·             SSG asked for an exceptional inflationary increase (above 2.6%) to their service charge for 2025/26, however, there were no provisions in the contract for this and as such, the agreed rate in the contract had been applied.

·             The budget for 2025/26 was set out in paragraph 8.3. Employee costs were based on the previously established position before the vacancy arose.   

·             With the CCTV Operations Manager effectively working two roles, they would look to fill the vacancy in the coming financial year.

·             The changes to the number of camera units per partner organisation were outlined in the table, with East Herts Council overtaking North Herts Council in terms of camera units. 

The Procurement & Compliance Manager provided an update and advised that:

·             Since the last meeting, an Invitation to Tender the works for an upgrade of the control room hardware and an ongoing support contract had been released. Eleven expressions of interests had been received so far, and they had begun evaluating these by using procurement approved benchmarking tools to ensure value for money.

·             Maintenance costs would be within budget and the costs for the upgrade were forecast to come below the original estimate.

·             They would await confirmation from East Herts and Hertsmere before proceeding with a tender.

The CCTV Operations Manager provided more information and advised that:

·             Regular updates were provided by the CCTV Operations Manager on performance, camera usage and incident data to the Officer Management Board.

·             An upgrade of Hertford Town Centre cameras had been complete and a quotation for a new cabinet had been sent to Hertford Town Council which was awaiting approval. 

·             North Herts had recently completed a refresh of their CCTV cameras. They had just one outstanding update to complete in addition to one new location which was awaiting permission from the building owner.

·             Hertsmere had ordered a new CCTV camera to be installed on Theobald Street, Borehamwood.

·             East Herts had one camera outstanding due to questions being asked about its location. A broadband connection was also long overdue at the site. However, camera upgrade installation at Gascoyne Way Car Park was underway and due to be complete in March 2025.

·             Stevenage Borough Council CCTV Housing Phase Three was awaiting one broadband connection at Ingelheim Court. Dunn Close had suffered a few setbacks due to contractors but would look to start installation in April 2025. A CCTV upgrade in Popple Way would start later in the month and another CCTV upgrade in Almond Lane Cemetery would be complete this month.

·             The Control Room continued to expand with over 1568 cameras that were monitored pro-actively and re-actively, across the Partnership and the Company.

·             An upgrade of the current Analogue link to a Digital link that ran from the CCTV Control Room to Police HQ was due and Police HQ ICT had been made aware of this.

·             No applications for RIPA and no Data Protection Act/GDPR breaches had been received or taken place since the last meeting.

·             Appendix A which detailed the statistics for Q3 2024-25 along with previous monthly reports could be found on the website and included comparisons on previous data.

The following Members asked questions:

·             Councillor Ian Albert

·             Councillor Alex Daar

·             Councillor Mick Debenham

In response to questions, The CCTV Operations Manager advised that:

·             There was always someone present in the Control Room and cover from the Police had been provided on occasion to ensure this, but they would look to recruit another staff member to improve the situation.

·             Some of the cameras in Letchworth were discovered to be . They had reported this to Virgin, following which engineers ran tests and found breaks in the fibre. This had been escalated and the repairs would take place in the coming week. 

·             Currently, the monthly reports were easier to view on a PC rather than a mobile device, but the proposed software upgrade would change this.

·             Generally, staff were busier as there were more cameras to manage which meant a higher chance of incidents and consequently, workloads were higher. 

·             No trends had been identified throughout the districts and boroughs, there were lots of different things happening in each area.

In response to questions, the Stevenage Borough Council Procurement & Compliance Manager advised that:

·             They were looking at two options to fill the current vacancy, creating a Business Support Officer role to take on lower-level duties or recruiting a part-time employee to look at the business development role. Both options would produce a cost saving and the capacity was there for both.

·             Timescale on the above was unknown as there were multiple parties involved in the costing, but an update on this would be provided going forward. 

Councillor Ian Albert thanked officers for providing previous data to allow Members to examine the flow of statistics.

Councillor Ian Albert proposed and Councillor Alex Daar seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Joint Executive provided comments and noted the report.

REASON FOR DECISION: To agree the strategic and policy issues in relation to the CCTV Partnership. They therefore receive regular updates from the Officer Management Board.