Labour-led Westminster City Council is moving forward with the next stage of its plans to help residents feel more secure in their local area by expanding the Council’s public realm CCTV network to 200 cameras. The previous Conservative administration shut down Westminster’s previous CCTV network after decades of under investment, leaving our area the only local Council in inner London without such a system to help tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

Under Labour Westminster has developed a new, high-tech CCTV system to tackle crime and ASB across our city with the first 100 cameras being fully deployed across the City by March this year, working in partnership with Hammersmith and Fulham’s experienced control room. The network is already delivering results, helping the police make arrests and support the council deploy its resources to help tackle anti-social behaviour.

As part of its upcoming budget plans for the new year Labour has confirmed it will double the number of cameras deployed across Westminster from 100 to 200 to further strengthen the Council’s work in cracking down on anti-social behaviour and crime. While the majority of the additional cameras will reinforce the council’s efforts to tackle crime and ASB in residential areas, upto 40 of the new cameras will be deployed in Soho, Mayfair and Leicester Square in the West End as the first steps in the Council’s upcoming Westminster After Dark initiative.

The doubling of Westminster’s CCTV is a part of a series of Labour measures to further strengthen the Council’s response to crime and anti-social behaviour including the new Street Based Intervention Team and the expansion of the noise and short-term-let enforcement teams.

Labour Leader of Westminster City Council Cllr Adam Hug said “For far too long local Conservatives talked tough but cut initiatives to keep people safe.  Labour is taking action to help make our residents both feel and be more secure in our City. The 100 new CCTV cameras that we will be deploying this year will help our residents both feel and be safer in their local communities and will make a valuable contribution to tackling night safety concerns in some of our West End hotspots.”