A Herefordshire town is to get extra CCTV coverage of what is claimed to be a blackspot for anti-social behaviour.
Herefordshire Council has said it will install a camera at Ledbury’s Recreation Ground in and also at Bye Street to the south – areas which “have for a long time suffered anti-social behaviour”.
The county council said that though there is already CCTV in the park, installed by Ledbury town council, this “is no longer fit for purpose and is not being proactively monitored”.
A successful bid for a grant by the Herefordshire Community Safety Partnership, its value not disclosed, “could be the only chance to supply new equipment in this area”, the council’s statement adds.
But Ledbury’s deputy mayor Stephen Chowns, who also chairs the town’s environment and leisure committee, said the issue of anti-social behaviour in the area “is long-standing, but is very seasonal and has been considerably reduced of late”.
The town council has already upgraded its own CCTV equipment, he said, adding that though this is not continuously monitored, it is recorded and always available to the town clerk.
The county council already operates cameras in the Homend and High Street in the town.
Meanwhile the town council will consider moving forward with plans for CCTV at its own offices, which would require listed building consent, at a committee meeting tomorrow (March 7).
It is also pursuing the possibility of a further camera at the Methodist church on Bye Street, which Coun Chowns said he favours.
Herefordshire Council recently stepped in to make up a funding gap on the county’s centralised CCTV monitoring and response centre, after Hereford city council voted to withdraw its share of funding for this. Ledbury and the other market towns also contribute to it.
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