Bishop's Stortford, Hertford and Ware CCTV

HTC, WTC and BSTC ("The Town Councils") are in the process of reviewing the arrangements for the next 3-5 years and are acting jointly to invite tenders for CCTV installation, maintenance and monitoring services to provide CCTV surveillance in the three towns. CCTV surveillance in the public realm in the towns of Hertford, Ware and Bishop's Stortford is currently provided by the Hertfordshire CCTV partnership ("the Partnership"). The service is currently purchased by the three Town Councils through East Herts District Council (EHDC) (which is a member of the Partnership). EHDC recharges the costs to Ware Town Council (WTC), Hertford Town Council (HTC) and Bishop's Stortford Town Council (BSTC) and the Town Councils also currently bear some costs directly. It is envisaged that one outcome of this review may be that the Town Councils would purchase the service from the provider directly and prospective providers are asked to bid on this assumption. Monitoring and recording takes place at a monitoring centre in Stevenage, to which the cameras are connected through a communications network leased by the Partnership. The Partnership is also responsible for equipment upgrade and maintenance, both in the field and at the monitoring centre, though on occasion the Town Councils have stepped in and purchased new cameras. Many of the cameras in the field have reached end of life, being rather old analogue PTZ cameras and a field 'technology refresh' is essential within the next 12-24 months or less. The successful bidder will be expected to provide the following services: 1. Replacement (on a planned annual programme or one-off basis) of all cameras that are close to the end of their operational life or are no longer supported by the original manufacturer with IP cameras (minimum 1080p resolution, higher preferred) in accordance with the schedule attached. Faulty cameras may require, from time to time, replacement on an ad-hoc basis. 2. Provision and maintenance of a communications network by which the footage from the cameras is routed to the monitoring and recording centre. Optionally the bidder may make use of space in town centre offices owned by each of the three councils as local equipment locations, eg to site remote storage hubs so that only the footage of a lower resolution needs to be backhauled to the monitoring centre or for the purposes of aggregation. Such use of town centre offices would be to enable/facilitate the operation of the CCTV - it would not be for the purposes of accommodating staff employed by the successful contractor. 3. Secure recording of all footage to be retained for a minimum of 30 days. 4. Provision of footage to the Police or members of the public subject to an appropriate protocol/process being in place. That protocol/process must adhere to the requirements of GDPR legislation. 5. Provision to the Police of instant access to live footage from internet-connected devices (or devices connected via some private network available or provided within the area - eg wireless). 6. The undertaking of 24*7*365 real-time monitoring of all cameras and the provision of proactive alerts to the Police where incidents or potential incidents are observed. For the avoidance of doubt images from fixed cameras means that such images are displayed at all times at the control room and monitored by staff in real time. 7. The undertaking of ongoing maintenance (including appropriate preventative maintenance) of all field equipment communications equipment and central (monitoring room) infrastructure. 8. The provision to clients of monthly reporting of network and camera status and the provision of agreed statistics. 9. Management reviews each quarter (or other frequency to be agreed) with the Town Councils at which the contractor will present a summary of performance statistics, matters of concern or interest, a brief review of relevant technology and industry trends and recommendations or proposals for service or infrastructure evolution both tactically and strategically. 10. A service level specification in relation to the above services setting out minimum uptime for the service, maximum lead time for new installations and for repairs, response time to data requests, the staffing to camera ratio and other key service metrics. Please note that if the holding of spare parts (or any other provision) by the Town Councils is beneficial to lead time then this (and associated costs) should be advised. 11. Additional services including: • Installation and commissioning of additional cameras including mobile cameras. • Decommissioning, removal and/or relocation of cameras. • Other activities required to keep the infrastructure in a functional state. Bidders shall be approved by the National Approval Council for Security Systems (NACOSS) and shall have Gold accreditation from the National Security Inspectorate (NSI) for CCTV system, and be ISO 9001:2000 accredited, or equivalent qualifications (which must accompany the bid). The security installation shall comply with all relevant statutory regulations and supporting codes of practice at the time of installation and all documentation required to evidence this shall be provided to the Town Councils. The detailed form of the contract will be subject to negotiation with the successful bidder. Bidders are asked to submit a draft and/or heads of terms. The duration will be a minimum of three years (with appropriate termination clauses for default etc). Bidders who consider that it might be advantageous to offer a longer contract (but not more than 5 years) are encouraged to do so provided that they make it clear what advantage the Councils may derive from the extended commitment. The start date for maintenance/monitoring will be 1 April 2023. It is anticipated that a period of network migration will immediately precede this date. Additional information: Further information can be found in tender documents.