In 2016, West Lancashire Borough Council's CCTV system was awarded a five year Certificate of Compliance by the Surveillance Camera Commissioner.



The certification shows that the Council's CCTV system is managed appropriately and that the information gathered from the cameras is used in an appropriate manner and in accordance with the Surveillance Code of Practice guidelines.

One of the requirements of the Code of Practice is that the Council regularly reports on the effectiveness of the system and the appropriateness of the camera locations.

Council's 2016/2017 Annual CCTV report highlights the achievements of the Council's CCTV operations.

Over the last six years the Council has invested in the public open space system and expanded the scheme to install cameras in areas which previously had no coverage.

The authority has just published its annual report on the CCTV it operates, and key achievements highlighted for 2016/17 include:

* In total CCTV staff observed and assisted with 6045 "incidents", over 100 a week
* Operators helped police officers arrest 282 people in West Lancashire
* Staff were involved with 643 missing/vulnerable person responses
* They were also involved in observing 758 cash deliveries/collections to ensure they were carried out without incident
* Operators also identified 1637 incidents themselves through their general monitoring


The Council currently operates 107 public open space cameras and these are monitored 24 hours a day 365 days each year. Each of these camera locations has been reviewed and the report confirms that cameras are appropriately located.


David Tilleray, Director of Leisure and Wellbeing for the Council, said: "The report underlines the tremendous work of our CCTV operators. Their experience and close working relationship with the police helps to ensure we achieve great results from our system, and the staff deserve great praise for their efforts."


The full report is available on the Council's website via the following link www.westlancs.gov.uk/cctvreport. For more information on the Council's CCTV system please visit www.westlancs.gov.uk/cctv.


West Lancashire Police Inspector Adrian Jolley said: "Lancashire Constabulary fully supports the use of CCTV and I am extremely impressed with the WLBC scheme which continues to go from strength to strength."

One of the issues the Council must have due regard to is the privacy of private residents. The software that is used allows for parts of the CCTV image to be completely blanked out.

There are several existing cameras where privacy settings are installed to completely blank out windows or whole houses so that residents' privacy is ensured. If you have any comments about privacy in relation to existing cameras, please email community.safety@westlancs.gov.uk<ma...stlancs.gov.uk>.

Shame the cameras around Southport are not monitored in the same way,and 3 of the cameras are either pointing towards the sky,or just looking down onto the road.Used to see them moving,watching different areas,but now they are mostly stationary,or possibly NOT even working at all.