£40,000 investment at a popular meeting point on Wandsworth Common
The system is being introduced at the well-used Catsback Bridge in response to requests from residents and following detailed discussions with the Metropolitan Police and officers in the council's parks police service.
The bridge is on a busy pedestrian route in the heart of the common. It crosses railway lines near the café on the common and the nature study centre. It is well used by all visitors, particularly young families.
The council will also be spending extra cash in order to minimise the appearance of the camera on the common's natural environment. No trees will be pruned or chopped down to facilitate the camera.
Cabinet member for environment and public services Cllr Kathy Tracey said:
"This will be a state-of-the-art camera system that will bring a good deal more safety and security to this busy and popular part of the common. I am particularly pleased that its impact on the natural beauty of the common and its flora and fauna, will be kept to an absolute minimum."
The council currently operates more than 700 CCTV cameras across the borough. There are cameras in every ward, commercial centre and transport hub in Wandsworth.
More than 50 new cameras were installed in the borough last year. These included new cameras at Southfields station, Danebury Avenue in Roehampton, Warriner Gardens and Queenstown Road in Battersea, Bellevue Road near Wandsworth Common and at the junction of Mitcham Lane and Southcroft Road in Tooting.
Twenty three of the new cameras were added to housing estates, bringing the total number of cameras operating on local estates to just under 450. The police estimate that the council's camera network is responsible for an average of two arrests every day.
The Catsback Bridge system is due to be up and running in the autumn.
May 25, 2010
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