Melton to get new CCTV system to replace ageing network

CCTV pictures being monitored at Melton police station back in 2017 - the same system has been in place since the 1990s

A new CCTV network is to be installed in Melton Mowbray to replace the existing system which dates back to the 1990s.

Melton borough councillors were told at a meeting this week that a business case was being drawn up for the cameras ready for the council to consider by the end of this year.

Money has been set aside in the authority’s capital programme to finance the upgrade, which it is hoped will give greater support to police tackling crime and better protect town centre businesses from burglary, theft and damage.

Michelle Howard, the council’s director for housing and communities, told a scrutiny committee meeting: “The council CCTV system is now over 26-years-old so it is ageing and it no longer offers value for money.

"It needs to be modernised and we are looking at what we will need from the new system rather than replacing it like for like.

“We are making good progress on the business case and should be bringing it forward to the council later this year.”

It is hoped a modern CCTV network will also provide strong support to the town’s Pubwatch scheme, which coordintates responses to crime and other incidents in the evenings in and around licensed premises, and a reinvigorated SMART scheme.

Ms Howard told the meeting: “Improving the CCTV system will increase public confidence in the town as a safe place to live and work.”

Four new CCTV cameras were recently installed at ‘hotspots’ through funding from the government’s Safer Streets Fund.