New CCTV System

Published: 22 May 2017

Last year Nelson Town Council agreed to support the continued provision of CCTV within Nelson, on the condition that the system was upgraded. Following extensive work over the last 2 years, the CCTV hub has been thoroughly overhauled and has moved to a new Hub in Blackburn. The Town Council Chairman, Councillor Zafar Ali and the Town Clerk attended a demonstration event at the new CCTV hub to see how the operation is being managed.

The new hub has ‘state of the art’ equipment, with an extensive bank of video displays. There are 6 operating desks for close monitoring work and the hub is now staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This is a vast improvement on the previous 3 days a week Nelson received. The hub also has direct contact with various sources for information including the police and local radio schemes.

“The hub is capable of delivering up to the second monitoring reports of key sites in Nelson which is invaluable to Police and enforcement in Nelson. I am satisfied that the decision to upgrade to this new set up was the right one especially when residents of Nelson, in the centre of town, are safe around the clock”- Zafar Ali, Chairman of Nelson Town Council.

Nelson has 10 fully operational cameras and cameras are now very rarely off-line. All the cameras can be operated remotely from the new hub and have an increased definition rate allowing for close scrutiny work when required. The new hub has a dual input system that allows for the cameras to be moved to another input in case of any failure, therefore the maximum down time for any camera is now 40 minutes. The cameras are all wireless, making huge savings on the rental of fibre-optic lines and removing the potential for lines to be cut and the images are high quality, although further improvements are planned with the introduction of High Definition cameras in the future.

Nelson Town Council has been given a direct contact into the Hub to report any issues or problem and we will be requesting a monthly report on the successes from the camera. The CCTV Manager advised that approximately 40% of all crime detections rely on CCTV evidence.

Nelson Town Council believes that our communities safety is paramount and that no one should be the victim of crime, this is why the Town Council has agreed to support these improvements to our CCTV system and will continue to support the CCTV to ensure it remains within Nelson.

Should you have any query on the CCTV locations or wish to report any suspicious activity please contact Steve Watson, town clerk, who will present your issues to the management team at the CCTV hub .