FROME’S CCTV service will remain active following a threat that Somerset Council may axe the provision to cut costs as it navigates its ‘financial emergency.’
At the full town council meeting on Wednesday 13th March, Frome Town Council voted to enter into a three-year Service Level Agreement with Somerset Council, (an agreement between a service provider and a customer), to continue providing CCTV in Frome in key locations around and just outside of the town centre.
The cost in year one will be up to £28,000, and £28,000 in the second and third years, which will come from the devolution budget; councillors hope to reduce this figure through negotiation.
The town council’s clerk, Paul Wynne, explained the service they will be paying for is a ‘better service’ than the authority has spent money on in previous years, due to the fact it is a live monitoring system, being watched 24/7.
In total, there are 10 CCTV cameras in Frome, which will be continued to be managed and monitored by Somerset Council.
Advocating the benefits of keeping Frome’s CCTV provision, cllr Nick Dove said, “CCTV doesn’t actually prevent crime because the kind of crime that happens is usually by drunken people who forget there’s CCTV even there, but what it does is it reassures the public, reduces the fear of crime and you really have to have it because when things happen, it’s the first thing in a line of enquiry police will use.
“It also helps the police if it’s [being] monitored live, if they get a call to say there’s a pub fight going on, they can look at the monitors and deploy staff. Since the 2008 2008 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, there was an expectation that councils would work with police to provide these sorts of measures. I support this.”
Frome Town Council’s environment manager, Rob Holden said, “In discussion with the local police we asked how valuable and essential is CCTV for police operations. They said they use them every single week. If there is a missing car or a missing person, the first thing they do is look at the CCTV footage.”
‘Under threat’
Saving the CCTV provision in the town is among the first services Frome Town Council has taken action to keep, after Somerset Council announced at the end of last year that it could ‘effectively’ go bankrupt. This meant that some services and assets are at risk of being cut in a bid for the authority to save funds.
Frome Town Council raised its precept by 29% in preparation to potentially take on some services and assets that are considered ‘important’ to save in the town.
Somerset Council avoided declaring a s114 notice by agreeing a balanced budget for 2024/25 at its council meeting held in February.
This means that commissioners will not be appointed by government to cut services and assets without Somerset Council approval for 2024/25.
However, this does not mean that Somerset Council’s finances are now settled and acceptable. It is more of a holding situation to deliver more significant cuts to services and structural transformation in advance of setting the budget for 2025/26.
