Cameras covering Omagh town centre condemned

A DAMMING report into CCTV in Omagh has found that the whole system is now obsolete and the 16 cameras need to be replaced at a cost of upwards on £1 million.

The cameras located at a host of key town centre locations have all been condemned.

The equipment has been described as ‘out of date’, and the quality of images has been rejected as ‘very poor, blurry and pixilated’ ensuring that all of them require replacement.

Most of the cameras, including the ones at the junction of John Street and Church Street, the Bus Depot, Abbey Street and the town centre were originally put in place over two decades ago.

But some cameras only record in black and white and two are currently completely off-line.

The dire situation has left Fermanagh and Omagh District Council facing a potential showdown with both the PSNI and local traders over who foots the bill to buy new equipment.

At the moment, the total annual running costs of the cameras in Omagh is £46,000, with around half of this amount being paid by the council and the other half by the PSNI.

Traders are currently contributing around £1,000 per year for the cost of operating the system.

There are also concerns that the cameras are not of adequate quality to be used as evidence in court cases or other legal procedures. Figures compiled as part of the report indicate that despite the number of cameras, just over 164 incidents were recorded in the year from April 2019 until March 2020.

Mid-Tyrone Independent councillor, Emmett McAleer, described the report as ‘concerning’, adding that the system offered no reassurance to the public.

“It is concerning to hear that the cameras are obselete, all of them require to be replaced and they are producing poor quality images,” he said.

“One person who contacted me was the victim of a hit and run which happened close to a CCTV camera in Omagh town centre, yet they had extreme difficulty finding who was responsible for the camera and ultimately discovered that it had not recorded the incident.”

Omagh Town Independent councillor, Josephine Deehan said there was now an expectation among people that CCTV cameras were capable of providing good quality images.

“It is important that we engage with stakeholders on this because CCTV is important in the interests of public safety.”

One councillor described the £1 million price tag as ‘outrageous’. The Council will now carry out a full economic appraisal of the costs associated with providing CCTV.