News, Politics

New £700,000 CCTV control room will use AI to flag behaviour before people commit crime

By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

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A new “state-of-the-art” CCTV control room in Newark will be able to use Artificial Intelligence to flag people’s behaviour before they commit crime, the council says.

On Tuesday (February 18), Newark and Sherwood District Council’s cabinet members approved plans to build a new CCTV control room by March 2026.

The centre is currently based at Nottinghamshire Police’s Sherwood Lodge headquarters, but the partnership arrangement only has two years left on the agreement.

The council also has a number of independent, stand-alone CCTV
systems across the borough, including at its Castle House offices, the Buttermarket, and Vicar Water Country Park.

Plans were approved to bring all systems to one place, which will allow the authority to monitor footage live 24/7.

Cllr Paul Taylor (Lab), portfolio holder for public protection and community relations, said residents’ surveys had shown one of the top priorities was tackling anti-social behaviour and crime.

During the meeting he said the council needed to make a “step-change” to meet this need.

“This is about people’s safety,” he said.

“It is about tackling [anti-social behaviour] and it is about tackling crime and preventing it.

“This CCTV control room will deliver that step-change in tackling ASB and crime. It will move us from having a system that is spread across three districts, with hundreds of cameras being monitored in retrospect.

“What tends to happen at the moment is if someone is getting beaten up, the police will be able to go and have a look at what happened afterwards.

“Bringing this new system in, which will mean we will have state-of-the-art, the best system in the county, will mean that control room staff will know the area.

“It will mean that it will be monitored live, and will even be in a position – with AI – to spot behaviour that is likely to lead to offending and flash up for control room staff. It will be a major step-change.”

Council documents show the new control room will cost £700,000.

Integration of internal CCTV systems into the new control room will cost another £40,000.

The authority was intending to use £350,000 from the Government’s Towns Fund to pay for the project.

However, following the change in government, the council says it has been told any release of funding has been delayed to April 2026.

The lack of certainty around whether the council will be able to use the funding in retrospect means it has decided to pay for the project itself using money in reserve.

Consultants to manage the project will then cost a further £39,160, and will be paid for using the council’s General Fund.

Once built, five control room staff will be employed alongside a manager, at a cost of £120,000 in the 2026/27 financial year, which begins in April 2026.

Cllr Paul Taylor added: “Over the last 18 months we have been working hard to reduce anti-social behaviour in Newark and Sherwood and this is now down by 18 per cent.

“However, we are not complacent and plans for a new control room will be a step-change in protecting the public. This is a huge win for the safety of our residents.”

A location for the control room has not been made public.