More CCTV for Wycombe (From Bucks Free Press)

More CCTV for Wycombe

12:19pm Wednesday 10th March 2010 in News By Oliver Evans

An existing camera in High Wycombe

EIGHT CCTV cameras are to be installed around the new Sainsbury’s in High Wycombe.

The £140,000 scheme will be paid for by the supermarket as a condition of it being awarded planning permission by Wycombe District Council for the Oxford Road store.

Yet the cash will only last for five years – and the council could pay for it after that.

A council report says: “The council could seek to negotiate a continuing sum from Sainsbury. “Alternatively cameras could be removed, relocated or maintained at the Council’s cost. “The best option will probably only be clear after the cameras have been operating for a while as evidence can then be gathered on how much benefit they provide to either residents or Sainsbury’s.”

The location of the cameras was not available. The authority already runs a network of its own cameras around the town.

The issue of CCTV cameras has proved controversial.

A consultation on how the council should spend its cash next year found most wanted a cut in CCTV.

But a month before the results were published the authority approved a £252,000 upgrade of systems.

It said control room equipment is ‘now obsolete and so could not be maintained’.

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