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.