Clippings (Mar 2000)Clippings (Mar 2000)CCTV boost to station safety (T&A, March 27, 2000)
Bronte church may get spy cameras (T&A, March 16, 2000)
£12m bid to ease road chaos (T&A, Mar 9, 2000)
Measures are a real mixed bag (Comment, T&A, Mar 9, 2000)
Masts boon to CCTVs (T&A, March 4, 2000)
T&A, March 4, 2000
Mobile phone giant Vodafone has gone into partnership with Bradford Council scheme to install CCTV cameras in the city centre at a cost of nearly £1.3 million.
As reported in the Telegraph & Argus (in January), almost £1 million has been allocated from Government funds.
The remainder is being raised locally.
And Vodafone is paying for the supply and installation of the towers the cameras are mounted on.
In return it will use the columns to carry its own aerials as well. Each is about the size of a cigar tube and is hardly visible, according to a Council spokesman.
"Before the Government announced it was providing money for CCTV schemes, we contacted the four main mobile phone operators asking if they were interested in a partnership to increase their coverage in the city," he said.
"Vodafone said yes and agreed to pay for the supply and fitting of the columns and for a cabinet to house their equipment and ours.
"The agreement is worth a total -if about £40,000 so it is a great help to us as well."
by OLWEN VASEY and DREW KENDELL
T&A Reporters, Mar 9, 2000
A multi-million pound package of road schemes aimed at easing road chaos was unveiled in Bradford today.
But police said elements of the £12.8 million plans - including spy cameras on bus routes - were unmanageable.
While the Council said new CCTV cameras would deter rogue motorists from invading bus lanes, police said that prosecuting offenders could be expensive and time-consuming - and questioned who would foot the bill.
They also warned the pioneering guided bus lanes on one of the city's busiest roads could be seen as a race track by local joy-riders.
Sgt Keith Cluderay Odsal division traffic manager, said: "These lanes could be attractive for joy-riders, especially considering the area they are situated in."
He said devices to keep cars off the lane were essential for the £9 million Manchester Road scheme, and said moves were afoot to ensure this happened.
Commenting on the £50,000 proposal for CCTV cameras along bus routes in Manningham Lane and Thornton Road, Sgt Cluderay said: "They are a good idea in principal but problems could arise with enforcing them."
He said: "It will take a lot of man hours to trace these vehicles from the film and then to prosecute drivers. 1 am not sure if the responsibility of that operation fans to the police or authority"
Sgt Cluderay said it was unlikely the police could manage this because its monitoring system of cameras at four city traffic lights was at "full capacity".
But the Council's pioneering scheme to help residents reclaim streets from cars won warm police support.
Under the £100,000 proposal for the Barkerend area, speed limits would be cut to 10 mph and priority would be given to those on foot. Motorists would be held responsible for any accident involving a pedestrian.
He said: "This idea began in the Netherlands where it has worked well. This could well be one of the first times it has been used in this country."
One section of Barkerend will be picked as a pilot following extensive consultation.
Another key aspect of the scheme is to come down hard on motorists parking on zig-zag lines outside schools.
More than 40 projects are in the package, which will be considered by the Council's Executive Committee on March 15. If given the green light, the two-year transport programme will be jointly funded by the Council and Metro. Today Councillor Latif Darr, committee member for transport and planning said: "It is by far our biggest programme and we feel it will improve the quality of life for many people."
Acknowledging the police comments, he added: "We suspected that we, as the local authority, would have to pay something towards the costs of enforcing new traffic regulations. We will be talking to the police and sorting something out in detail." Other major projects include:
Comment, T&A, Mar 9, 2000
Predictably, the Council's proposed two-year transport package is something of a curate's egg - good in parts.
First, the good news. It is right that school entrances need to be made safer, and inconsiderate parkers prevented from adding to the dangers children already face.
It is also a good idea to look at ways of making some inner-city back streets safer for children. The T&A has long supported the idea of a 2omph limit in residential areas, but even greater safety is possible. We will watch with interest the progress of the pilot "Home Zone".
Other improvements include the much-needed revamp of Keighley bus station, improved parking in Shipley town centre and at the station, and long-overdue new paving in Sunbridge Road and North Parade. However..
Do we really want to waste money trying to catch-out hard-pressed motorists who occasionally dip into bus lanes? Certainly these lanes are abused by a minority though even the majority will sometimes find it difficult to spot restrictions, given the inadequate signing and especially if they are not familiar with the area.
The simple fact is, these lanes are not full of buses even at peak times. They just add to the traffic hold-ups by wasting road space in the mistaken belief that more people will use buses if they are allowed to travel on some main routes marginally quicker It will take more than that.
Penalising motorists in this way almost out of spite is a misguided exercise, as is the creation of space-wasting "guided bus" lanes to physically exclude them. These latter schemes are tired old thinking guaranteed to annoy far more people than they please.
T&A, March 16, 2000
One of the most famous churches in the county could have closed-circuit TV installed inside after a knife-wielding man attempted to rob a woman there.
Haworth Parish Church could be among the first in the area to use CCTV for security purposes, a spokesman for Bradford diocese said today.
Plucky grandmother Catherine McGinty, 50, of Allerton, tackled the thief in the doorway of the church after he snatched her rucksack from a pew.
He pulled out a knife, but Mrs McGinty continued to haul at her bag until he let go, bursting out of the door and fleeing across the graveyard on Saturday afternoon.
Haworth Church is visited by thousands of tourists every year on a pilgrimage to the home of the famous Bronte family.
The Rector of Haworth, the Reverend Paul Slater, said he was shocked by the incident, which had been the only serious attack in the church since he took over five years ago.
"We have looked into the possibility of fitting closed circuit television in the past but given this incident I will be bringing it up again at the Parochial Church Council.
"CCTV does pose a question about people's civil liberty, but if it makes people feel safer in church then it is worth doing."
Jens Hislop, a member of Haworth Parochial Church Council, said it was seriously considering fitting CCTV and the issue would be discussed at a meeting on April 4.
He had already sought advice and information from an electrical company about the equipment, its fitting and costs and the results would be related to members at the meeting.
"This incident is very upsetting. A church is a place of worship and sanctuary - but not in this case, it seems."
A spokesman for Bradford diocese said decisions whether to install closed circuit television were the responsibility of individual church councils.
He was unaware of any churches with CCTV especially for security although some parishes used cameras to relay the service to other parts of the building.
"We have had a number of sessions relating to various aspects of security where helpful advice has been given by police and insurers, including advice about closed circuit TV," he said.
Mr Slater said there had been minor pilfering in the past.
"It is important the church remains open not just because people want to visit the place where most of the Brontes are buried, but because many people come here to pray. In the summer we get several hundred requests on the prayer tree.
"The material losses we suffer are relatively small and I believe it is a reasonable price to pay to keep the church open," added Mr Slater, who plans to contact Mrs McGinty to reassure her of his concern.
The robber struck at 3.15pm on Saturday as Mrs McGinty spent a quiet 15 minutes in the church while she waited for a bus to take her home after visiting her daughter. He is described as white, in his early 20s, 5ft 6ins tall with a slim, boyish figure, long dark hair swept back, stubble on his chin and dark eyes.
by JOHATHAN RITSON, T&A Reporter, March 27, 2000
Passenger safety has been boosted with the switch-on of closed circuit television cameras at Ilkley bus station.
The bus station is now monitored 24 hours a day by CCTV cameras.
The system has been installed by Metro as part of a £1.63 million plan to provide greater security in transport centres across the district.
News of the scheme was announced in January, but Metro officials have confirmed the cameras have now been installed, as well as a help point linked to the Metro headquarters in Leeds.
A Metro spokesman said: "The cameras at Ilkley bus station are now on line and operating 24 hours a day.
"I have spoken to the security officers and it is a case of so far so good. Ilkley seems to be behaving itself."
She said the installation of such a system was already reaping rewards in other areas, with information being passed quickly to police officers about particular incidents caught on camera.
A special hotline will allow those monitoring the footage to contact the relevant police station.
Sergeant Alan Gee of Keighley Police has welcomed the 'switch on' in Ilkley
"The introduction of CCTV cameras helps in both the prevention and detection of crime. Hopefully people will think twice before committing a crime if they know they are being watched. Secondly, if they do commit a crime, we can use the footage as evidence," he said.
Sgt Gee said the cameras also had the effect of providing the public with a greater feeling of security.
"People have talked about infringing privacy but from my experience I have found the majority of members of the public are in favour of CCTV in public areas," he said.
The scheme has been welcomed by parish and district councillors, but calls still remain for other areas of Ilkley to be covered.
The Metro spokesman said: "I would like to stress the help point is not a system for asking the time of the next bus."
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