Arun: Councillors call on police to cover CCTV costs

Councillors in Arun want police forces to cover more of the cost of CCTV cameras

Councillors on Arun District Council want police to take on more costs for its new CCTV system.

The West Sussex council's housing and wellbeing committee approved the introduction of a cloud-based system, taking the annual £20,000 cost to £9,000.

It passed a motion to resist the "offloading" of costs with support of other local authorities in Sussex.

Sussex Police said it was exploring new funding opportunities for CCTV.

In 2018 Arun's CCTV got a £64,000 upgrade, £49,000 of which was paid for by the council.

Liberal Democrat councillor James Walsh said: "With our district and borough colleagues, across East and West Sussex and Brighton & Hove, for all of us to collectively say that we are not happy to take on this responsibility and that we firmly believe that this should belong with the police.

"[We need] to actually resist this move to offload it onto the boroughs, onto the local council."

A spokesman for Sussex Police said the force was "currently working hard with local authority partners across the county to establish a high quality and cost effective public facing CCTV solution.

"This will ensure the network of cameras is fit for the future and our partners will benefit from reduced operating costs in the future.

"We have worked closely with the office of the police and crime commissioner and other partners to explore possible funding opportunities for the project and eagerly await the outcome of these enquires.

"We are sorry to hear of the concerns raised by Arun District councillors and would of course invite them to discuss this with us further."

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