Agenda and draft minutes

None.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with at item 7 below).

None received.

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public, with knowledge of the relevant facts, would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgement of the public interest.

There were no such declarations.

To approve the minutes of the meeting of 2 October 2006.

AGREED;

That the minutes of the meeting of 2 October be confirmed.

To receive the views of a group of invited local residents and traders on the perceived effectiveness of CCTV systems in their localities and, in particular, finding out if their expectations have been met.

The Panel received evidence from a number of local residents and traders from three locations within the Borough – Muswell Hill, Green Lanes and Tottenham.

Residents and traders from Green Lanes felt that they had been misled about the purpose of CCTV cameras that had been installed in the area.  They had been told that their purpose was to help keep bus lanes clear and to promote community safety.  Since their installation, people had stopped abusing bus lanes but the cameras were now being used to enforce yellow box junction offences.  The camera near Endymion Road was now the 6^th. highest earning camera in London.  They felt that the cameras were not there for community safety purposes but to raise money for the Council.

Mr Pollak stated that the cameras in question had been installed using Transport for London (TfL) funding and were only used by the parking service.  The community safety and parking control rooms were moving to new premises where they would share a single control room.  TfL cameras would continue to be used for yellow box junction and bus lane enforcement whilst the community safety cameras would be used for solely for community safety purposes and not for parking except in areas where it was considered too dangerous for parking attendants (there were currently 4 community safety cameras that were being used for this purpose). The new working arrangements would better allow parking cameras to be used for community safety purposes in out of hours periods and the ultimate aim was that all cameras would be used around the clock. 

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Parking cameras were already sometimes used for community safety and the Police had recently used ones in Green Lanes as part of an operation.  In addition to the parking cameras, there were also community safety cameras present in the Green Lanes area.

In respect of Tottenham, it was also felt by traders in the area that the cameras were not being used for the benefit of residents but to raise revenue.   They had originally been told that cameras would be used for community safety purposes after 7:00 p.m. and at weekends and that they could also be used to monitor any incident that took place during the day.  This did not appear to be happening as cameras appeared to be switched off after hours.  Cameras that had been placed in car parks had proven to be very successful and made people feel safer.

There was a radio link between shops and the CCTV control room but this had proven to be very inefficient and it was difficult to get hold of anyone.  It was felt that the system needed good management with operators being more proactive in their approach.  They felt that having CCTV cameras was a good thing but community safety needed to be their highest priority and determine their use. 

Mr. Pollak stated that community safety always took precedence in the event of an incident taking place near parking  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

To consider progress with the review and future timetable (attached).

Noted.

There were no such items.