New council will face tackling CCTV issue

THE vexed question of CCTV cameras for Frodsham will be on the agenda of the first meeting of the new Town Council following tomorrow’s elections.
Members of the council’s community committee – meeting before the elections – decided to leave the matter to the new council after hearing there had been little progress in talks with Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC)
The Town Clerk was asked to contact Vanessa Griffiths, CWaC’s regulatory services manager to enquire why two CCTV cameras which had already been approved had not yet been installed.
CCTV has been a hot topic in Frodsham for some time – particularly since the Town Council discovered by accident that CWaC had established a business case for CCTV in the town centre two years ago without telling the Town Council.
The Mayor, Cllr Lord Frank Pennington, was among the more outspoken critics of CWaC.
He compared Frodsham town centre of a night with the Wild West – more like the Gunfight at the OK Coral.
“There’s hardly a night when there isn’t trouble – it can’t be allowed to go on,” he said.
He suggested that cameras could be introduced gradually if cost was an issue.
Since then it has emerged that the proposal was for just two cameras covering the A56 and Church Street.
Back in January, Cllrs Lynn Riley and Andrew Dawson, Frodsham’s two representatives on CWaC, told borough officers that more cameras were needed in Frodsham, covering the car parks, the medical centre, Castle Park and, possibly, the Ship Street area.
They said they were “disappointed” at the response from the officers.
There did not appear to be any provision for CCTV in Frodsham in CWaC’s budget.
Since then they have described CWaC’s two-camera proposal as “pathetically inadequate.”