A county councillor expressed fears over lack of security at a site earmarked for a £9million cutting-edge cyber defence centre as council leaders approved proposals for the scheme.
Herefordshire Council’s cabinet approved the launch of a new joint venture company with the University of Wolverhampton to build the centre at Skylon Park, which could create 190 jobs.
The university and council will make a total loan of £5 million to the new company, in return for shares.
But Dinedor Hill ward councillor David Summers said the site is one of the worst areas for security in the county and the area has been subject to vandalism.
He said: “I’m a great supporter of cyber security and I’ve been backing it all the way.
“My concern is that we are not taking into consideration security very much. We are talking cyber security, yet we have the Enterprise Zone in itself is one of the worst secured areas in Hereford.
“You just have to walk down the cycle way and see the vandalism that is going on and we are not doing much about it.”
He told the meeting that his calls for CCTV cameras to be installed at the Shell Store had been ignored.
He said: “The answer I got was ‘well, there’s somebody there all time, we don’t need cameras’.
“Police enforcement is getting more and more difficult. It is understaffed and underpaid. We don’t have that as much as we used to in the old days.
“Therefore, we need to be more secure in ourselves. We are investing a lot of money in this, I’m quite happy with that, it’s my ward. But we need to make sure that money is safe.
“If we don’t put better security in, and we don’t tie it into the contracts we are going to have a problem with the competition getting them in.”
The council’s cabinet noted councillor Summer’s concerns and approved the scheme.
Council leader Jonathan Lester said: “It is an exciting decision for the cabinet to make and it is going to put us at the forefront of waht is an absolutely important and growing industry that we really need to promote.”
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