€200k CCTV upgrade for Longford town

Close to €200,000 will be spent next year in ensuring Longford town is home to one of the most innovative and advanced CCTV systems in the country.

Local authority bosses are planning to spend approximately €166,000 by installing around 20 new cameras at various locations and housing estates throughout the town as part of a concerted bid to improve public safety and cut down on anti-social behaviour.

Danny Lynch, a representative from Longford County Council’s IT department, said the cameras currently in place and which were erected a decade ago had become obsolete.

“Those analogue CCTV cameras, the milestone server and the current transmission system in place in Longford are not fit for purpose and should be replaced,” he said.

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Mr Lynch added public consultation on the positioning of the new cameras was already planned for, revealing that funding would also have to be applied for.Councillors were also told that permission from the Garda Commissioner was another avenue which needed to be ticked off before work on the project could commence.

Mr Lynch continued by explaining the town’s former Connolly Barracks antenna had been chosen as the main command post for the new system due to its economical and strategic location.

“We looked at alternative sights but none could offer the same value for money and at 40 metres high, it offers brilliant value for money,” he said.

Cllr Gerry Warnock was first to herald the plan and was quickly followed by Fine Gael’s Peggy Nolan. However, the long serving public representative hit out at why the Council was being asked to foot the bill from within its own resources.

“It (money) should be coming from a national fund.

“If we get the guards on the street and the resources we need and with the huge body of work you and your team have already done, it should be funded,” she told him.

“And when completed I’ve no doubt that Longford will be a safer place to live in and do business in.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Joe Flaherty was, nonetheless, more scathing in his take on the apparent reluctance of government chiefs to bankroll the proposed CCTV rollout.

The Longford general election candidate said it was a “damning indictment” on the present Fine Gael led administration that the Council had to effectively to go “cap in hand” to ask for the required money.

“This is €166,000 to keep the people of Longford safe and yet he (Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan) hadn’t even the courtesy to write back,” he said.

“Much like the Property Tax, it’s the people of Longford who are being asked to fund it.”

Head of Finances John McKeon didn’t dispute those claims, stating the funding for the new cameras would likely be drawn from the town’s paid parking revenue streams.

It was a disclosure which prompted Cathaoirleach Cllr Seamus Butler to insist a “loud and clear message” needed to go out to motorists over how their loose change from paid parking was effectively subsidising the introduction of a “first class” CCTV system throughout Longford town.

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