Local councillors have welcomed the switching on of a CCTV system to monitor an anti-social behaviour hotspot in Cadbury Heath, South Gloucestershire.
Funded by South Gloucestershire Council, the two new state-of-the-art cameras have been erected on School Road and Newton Road, after calls from the local community for action to tackle numerous incidences of anti-social behaviour and other more serious forms of crime, which have occurred locally over the years.
The School Road area, in particular, hit the headlines in 2007 when two men blew up a phone box using firework explosives. They were later jailed.
Local traders and residents, including the elderly residents of the nearby Alfred Lovell Gardens elderly people’s home, have regularly been the victims of anti-social behaviour in the School Road and Newton Road areas.
Despite being operational for a matter of days, the new cameras, which are monitored round the clock, have already caught an incident of three teenagers scaling the roof of the Cadbury Heath Hall on School Road with one of the group recorded attempting to break a roof window.
In a joint statement, Tony Olpin and Nick Barrett, Conservative councillors for the Parkwall ward that includes Cadbury Heath, said:
“Crime and anti-social behaviour have blighted the lives of many of our local traders and residents, including those who are vulnerable and elderly, and so we have been pushing strongly for action to address people’s fears.
In the short time the cameras have been switched on, an incident involving several youths climbing onto the roof of Cadbury Heath Hall has already been recorded meaning that the police can more easily identify the perpetrators and deal with them effectively.
We welcome the installation of these quality, state-of-the-art cameras because the more effective tackling of crime and anti-social behaviour that will come through their use will hopefully transform local people’s quality of life and help them to feel safer and be safer.”
Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council
