Alliance Welcome Movement Forward On CCTV

Old Down District area CCTV to be upgraded to digital says Alliance

Councillor Jill Truesdale announced that the 11-year delay in having the old analog Town Centre CCTV cameras upgraded in Newcastle, Downpatrick and Ballynahinch is coming to a close.

She said: “Following last weeks Council committee meeting in Newry, it was revealed that the PSNI were negotiating to take over the monitoring of the cameras for the towns in the Old Down District Area.

“Lack of agreement here has delayed the project to replace the outdated and expensive analog cameras for some years”.

Alliance fellow Councillor Downpatrick’s Cadogan Enright agreed saying: “Councillor Truesdale and I attended Thursday’s meeting together and were able to establish that the long frustrating delay in the movement from analog to digital cameras is now nearly over.

Local Alliance representatives (l-r) Councillors Tierna Howie, Cadogan Enright, David Lee-Surginor and Jill Truesdale welcome progress on CCTV in the old Down District area

“The impasse over monitoring between Gough and Lisburn should never have happened’

Rowallane Councillors Tierna Howie and David Lee-Surginor agreed saying adding: “This new system will provide really good images even at night-time where the current analog cameras are virtually useless”.

Councillor Enright summed up an all too familiar situation all of the Councillors had experienced, and said: “Over the years we have been in situations where anti-social behaviour was occurring beside the cameras in our areas.

“But we were told by the PSNI that the images were too poor to support a prosecution, hopefully this will soon be a thing of the past’