News / Crime
Big Brother is coming to Bristol
A new CCTV hub which could cost the council as much as £8.4m is coming to Bristol.
Three control rooms across the city are due to be merged into one at the council’s 100 Temple Street offices.
Assistant mayor Geoff Gollop said the new control room plans were “far from a story about Big Brother” but more a story about efficiency in updating an old system.
is needed now More than ever
Considering a report, mayor George Ferguson approved the new plans which will incorporate CCTV with traffic management systems and Telecare, used to monitor high-risk people in care.
The plans were also backed by assistant mayor Daniela Radice, who said: “This is a really good idea to improve coordination.”
Part of the funding for the project will come from the Bristol Workplace Programme, the £64m investment plan launched in 2012 to cut council costs in the future.
The remaining £6.5m was approved from council reserves by Ferguson at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The new control room will modernise systems and prevent future crashes which could end up costing as much as £4.7m, a council report said.
It added that moving from the current control rooms at Brunel House and Wilder Street would save the council £2m a year in rent.
Bristol is already one of the most watched cities in the UK, with more CCTV cameras per person than in Manchester or Liverpool.
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