TWENTY-two thousand pounds could be set aside to replace ageing CCTV monitoring equipment to keep a watchful eye on Wantage and Abingdon.

The Vale of the White Horse district council’s cabinet is set to discuss plans to set aside £22,000 from its capital contingency programme to buy new recording and monitoring equipment which is linked to cameras in the two towns.

A report to the council cabinet said Thames Valley Police relies upon the 23 cameras in Abingdon and six in Wantage to monitor public spaces in the towns.

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The cameras are maintained by the council and are used by police to detect and record crime, as well as to find missing people.

They are also used by the council for car parking investigations and planning for flooding.

Existing equipment at the CCTV control room based in Abingdon Police Station has become out of date, as the software used to run the cameras is six years old and the parts needed to repair the old equipment is becoming harder to buy.

The report adds a new computer system would still be able to operate the CCTV cameras in both towns, which are old, analogue models.

But it adds the cameras themselves should be replaced in the future with high definition digital devices.

Oxford Mail:

The CCTV cameras should eventually be replaced with newer digital models says a report.

The report warns there is a risk repairs could become expensive if a pot of money is not set aside to update the camera system.

It adds there is a risk that in the future there could be no CCTV in Wantage and Abingdon if money is not set aside.

The total cost of the new control room equipment is £65,000, with costs shared between Vale and South Oxfordshire district councils based on the number of cameras they own.

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While Vale is discussing setting aside £22,000, South Oxfordshire is being asked to set aside the remaining £43,000 as it owns 57 cameras.

Vale of the White Horse District Council produces a report on how its security cameras are used to prevent crime every six months.

In the most recent CCTV report for October 2018 to March 2019 the cameras helped with 841 incidents.

This included recording 20 fighting and affray incidents in Wantage and recording 98 shoplifting incidents in Abingdon.

The Vale district council cabinet will discuss the new CCTV monitoring system on Friday, October 4.

For a cabinet agenda, visit democratic.whitehorsedc.gov.uk