Council plans hi-tech CCTV in City parks

12.00.00am GMT Fri 24th Feb 2006

Cambridge Liberal Democrats today announced plans to introduce hi-tech infra-red CCTV cameras to Parker's Piece and Christ's Pieces.

The announcement came as part of the Budget proposal for the City Council and will cost £36,000 to buy four enhanced infra-red cameras and £4,000 per year to run the system.

Commenting on the proposal, Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith, Leader of Cambridge City Council, said:

"Christ's Pieces and Parker's Piece are very popular and attractive places for residents and visitors to use. However, they have histories of incidents ranging form daytime anti-social behaviour to night-time muggings. To make things more difficult, the trees in these parks limit the amount of surveillance that can be provided by CCTV cameras on the periphery and conventional cameras get 'dazzled' by street lighting.

"Infra-red cameras mounted at suitable locations inside the parks can be used to monitor and advise police of any build up of events by night as well as by day, or to gather evidence about a reported incident."

Cllr Colin Rosenstiel, Councillor for Market Ward, added:

"I'm very pleased that we're able to invest in these new cameras. It is important that we do all we can to improve the quality and security of our open spaces."