THE CCTV coverage of Holsworthy was discussed during the full town council meeting on Wednesday, February 1, with plans to increase the number of cameras from the current four to ten.

Recent events in the town have highlighted the need for increased surveillance of main areas in the town including, the Square, Fore Street and near the council offices — which were recently broken into.

During the full council meeting, mayor Jon Hutchings said: “We currently only have four, poor quality CCTV cameras in the town. With a new system we will be able to have ten new cameras to increase the areas we can monitor. With prices of cameras having come down considerably since we had the first lot installed it will be cost effective for the town and will enable us to aid the police in their duties more.”

The town clerk, Vanessa Saunders, explained to those present, including Holsworthy and Torrington Neighbourhood Team leader Sgt David Monkton and PFCSO Mark James, that the new cameras would ‘be fixed so they can’t zoom’ but that they will ‘be in aerial positions and will give coverage of much wider areas than before’.

Four cameras are to be placed in Holsworthy’s Square, a further three will be positioned on the council’s office building to cover Manor car park, two will be on Fore Street and one will cover Victoria Square — with scope for more to be added to the system at a later date.

Cllr Hutchings said: “They [the cameras] will give us full coverage of the square and others will cover Fore Street, the whole of the car park and Victoria Square. All the cameras will be in HD, which will give us a much clearer picture than before and may allow us to help the police in identifying any suspects etc.”

Discussions were held over what to do with the existing four cameras, Cllr Helen Taylor asked: “Will the old cameras still be in use or will we get rid of them?”

Cllr Hutchings said in reply: “One of the things we are looking into is the possibility of moving the current system over to Badock Gardens, but we will have to discuss that!”

The new CCTV system will be monitored from the Torridge and town councils’ joint offices in Holsworthy, linked together via a broadband phone line.

Ms Saunders explained how the system would work, in connection with the proposal to move the existing cameras to Badock Gardens.

She said: “The Badock camera’s would be a stand alone system that could link into ours via the broadband. We need to look into it, but the hopes are if the nursery school there has a phone line we can link it into our system through that.

“At some point in the future we hope to extend the service to cover the pavilion and the park and monitor all from the office.”

As the car park behind the council’s offices is managed by Torridge District Council the town council will look into whether some of the cost for the car park’s cameras could be taken on by the district council.

Ms Saunders said: “We have a budget for ten fixed cameras and their associated works. We have asked Torridge if they will provide £500 for the ones in the car park. The district council has said they could potentially make a contribution.”

At the present time the council are only planning sights for ten CCTV cameras in the town, however Cllr Hutchings said ‘the sky is the limit’ when it comes to purchasing more.

PFCSO James asked: “What about the bus stop on Fore Street, will you be looking at putting cameras there?”

Ms Saunders explained that the bus shelter is owned by Torridge District Council, she added: “They will, at some point we assume, want us to take on the running of the shelter as it is connected to the toilets they want us to take on too.”

The new CCTV system for the town will be monitored from the town council offices in Holsworthy, Sgt Monkton asked if someone would be monitoring the cameras during midnight hours.

PFCSO James said: “I believe these cameras won’t be like those seen in Bideford where they are monitored 24/7, they are just there as backup footage that can be accessed when needed following an incident.”

Ms Saunders said: “The cameras will be monitored from the town councils offices but no this won’t be 24/7. The cameras will record continuously so if an incident occurred during the night we would be able to look back through footage.

“There could be a possibility for someone coming in at that time [night] to allow access to the cameras and the footage they have recorded. I don’t live locally but my colleague [deputy town clerk Kerry Punter] does, but we as a council would have to discuss that possibility further.”