Community Safety
South Ayrshire Council
2nd Floor
Burns House
Burns Statue Square
Ayr
KA7 1UT

South Ayrshire Council has recognised the benefit that Close Circuit Television (CCTV) produces in the reduction of crime, the perception of crime and other community safety issues. CCTV plays an integral and important role in South Ayrshire’s Community Safety Strategy, which is aligned to the Council’s Vision of 2020


“having South Ayrshire recognised as having one of the most attractive and safe environments in Scotland, managed in a sustainable fashion for the benefits of residents, businesses and visitors.”

This report details the operation of the South Ayrshire Monitoring Station, gives an indication of staff, funding, details of cameras and related equipment and provides a comparison between the current situation at the time of writing and figures produced for the original bid for funding in 1998.

General Overview
South Ayrshire Council owns and operates the South Ayrshire Monitoring Station (SAMS) which is responsible for monitoring the five public space CCTV systems in the towns of Ayr, Troon, Prestwick, Maybole and Girvan as well as a system of cameras in the Mainholm Academy Campus in Ayr. In total 103 cameras are fully operational within South Ayrshire. A detailed description of the areas and cameras monitored by SAMS is given below.

Transmission Network
In order to provide the most efficient service, all pictures received from public CCTV sites in South Ayrshire are transmitted into SAMS fibre optic link provided by British Telecom (BT). In addition South Ayrshire Council also pays an annual rental to BT to ensure that the service is maintained at all times. This means that in the event of a fibre link failing BT should be able to re-route the pictures within a very short space of time.

Monitoring and Staffing
SAMS provides a monitoring service 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. There are 17 full time and 2 part-time operators plus a station manager.? 24-hour cover is maintained by dividing the operators into 3 groups who work a shift pattern designed to ensure that the staffing levels reflect the projected monitoring demands. The levels are able to withstand a certain amount of abstractions without having to rely on overtime as a matter of course.

Camera Locations and Descriptions

Ayr Town Centre – there are 69 cameras located with the town centre area, consisting of 50 fully functional cameras and 19 fixed cameras. There are also 9 fully functional cameras operating in the Lochside and Dalmilling housing estates, which are located in the north part of Ayr.

Each of the cameras in Ayr is linked to SAMS by fibre optic cable and BT cabling. All cameras are monitored 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. In addition to this, there is a two-way BT fibre optic link to Ayr Police Office. This allows every picture received within SAMS to be transmitted and viewed on two monitors by the Police Controller.

Girvan Town Centre – within Girvan town centre there are 5 fully functional cameras and 1 static camera. Similar to Ayr, monitoring takes place within SAMS and Girvan Police Office, although this is in the process of being upgraded to be via live fibre optic cable (supplied by BT)

Troon, Prestwick and Maybole – Since February 2003 all three towns have had four cameras installed in each of their town centres – the first public space cameras to be installed. Signals from all 12 cameras are transmitted into SAMS via a live fibre optic link (provided by BT).

The John Pollock Centre


There are 6 fully functional cameras and 1 fixed camera providing surveillance for the whole campus and the John Pollock Centre. In addition the cameras are also able to monitor the surrounding public area/streets thus giving additional public space cover. All cameras are linked to SAMS and are monitored 24 hours a day.

Other Services - SAMS also provides a number of monitoring services for organisations outwith South Ayrshire Council. Included in this are 25 remote sites (with approximately 10 cameras per site) and 110 Intruder Activated Alarms for Ayrshire and Arran Primary Care Trust. One remote site is monitored for Enterprise Ayrshire. Monitoring is also provided for 4000 dispersed community alarms and for 44 sheltered housing units across North and South Ayrshire (with an average of 30 residents per unit). In addition SAMS provides a service for Emergency Housing Repairs, which is used out of office hours. At present it is estimated that this service attracts over 200 calls per month.

Maintenance & Insurance
All CCTV equipment that is owned by South Ayrshire Council is fully covered by a comprehensive maintenance contract with Scotshield Security Systems, based in Chaplelhall Industrial estate in Airdrie. This contract commenced on 1st July 2000 and runs for 5 years. Insurance cover for all CCTV systems is provided by Zurich Municipal. The annual premium for £2million cover is £5,000.

Funding
Details of sources of funding are outlined below:

Local Authority Funding - £542,000

Other Sources of Funding
Ayrshire & Arran Primary Care NHS Trust - £52,300
North Ayrshire Council - £74,400
Enterprise Ayrshire - £1,200
Police Revenue Grant - £30,000
Private Sector Funding - £ Nil

Total Annual Revenue Requirement - £699,900

How these figures compare with the original funding bid is discussed below.

Comparison between 1998-99 and 2003-04
The table below gives an indication of difference in figures over the past few years, from the original bid in 1998 to the present day;

As can be seen from above there have been substantial key changes since the original funding bid was submitted in 1999. There have been 3 more full-time members of staff added since 1998 taking the total number of staff up to 20. Funding for SAMS has risen substantially by £449,900 and this can be attributed to the fact the number of cameras has nearly trebled since 1999 while the number of Remote Sites and Community Alarms has also risen considerably. In the case of Community Alarms, the promotion of an Additional Home Security Project for victims of domestic abuse has seen around 60 community alarms installed for vulnerable women, and this is included in the total.

Conclusion
As demonstrated above, there has been substantial investment for the development of SAMS in terms of equipment, staff and for other agencies involved with funding. South Ayrshire Council has no partnership arrangements regarding public space CCTV, it meets all costs in relation to the provision of this service. However traders in both Ayr and Girvan town centres helped contribute to the initial capital costs of each system while Strathclyde Police have been fully supportive of all CCTV developments within South Ayrshire. It is clear that the Monitoring Station has an important role to play in making South Ayrshire an attractive and safe place.

Download The South Ayrshire Monitoring Station Evaluation Document (1750KB)

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