Castleblayney moves closer to a CCTV System

By PATSY McARDLE

A meeting of the Castleblayney Town Council Joint Policing Committee heard in the Glencarn Hotel on Monday night last how progress has been made on the proposal to have a new CCTV system installed in the Mid-Monaghan town to help eliminate sporadic anti-social behaviour.
The meeting was chaired by Cllr. Joe Brennan, Chairman of the Castleblayney Joint Policing Committee. Among those present were the Mayor of Co. Monaghan, Cllr Jackie Crowe; the Mayor of Castleblayney, Cllr. David Funcheon; Garda Sergeant Eric Boyle; Ms. Carmel Redmond, Bree Residents Association; Ms. Niamh Boyle and Oisin Walsh, Comhairle na nOg; Ms. Mary Lynch, Youth Work Ireland-Monaghan; and Town Clerk Mr. Jerome Savage. A numbr of local councillors were also present.
CCTV
At the outset, Mr. Paul Treanor, head of information systems with Monaghan County Council, outlined to the Committee the development in relation to the proposed introduction and installation of closed circuit TV in Castleblayney. He revealed they had received tenders from three firms interested in providing a system that would be suitable for the town. The tenders were received from busnessman Mr. Paul Goodman (Blayney); SKS Communications Limited, Dublin; and AES CCTV Security and Fire Alarms Limited, Blayney.
He said they were unable to deal with Mr. Goodman’s tender because it did not contain the technical data required but of the other tenders, while there were some differences in relation to the cameras, all footage was of good quality and he was satisfied the local tender of AES would be suitable .
Mr. Treanor said that while they had some demonstrations his opinion was based on the technical side of the installation and not costings.
In reply to some questions, he said there appeared to be a difficulty from the camera systems demonstrated in getting sufficiently clear footage in relation to car registrations and this was considered a problem in most areas where there was a general camera focus on the wider street
The Chairman (Cllr. Brennan) said the Town Council would have to make the final decision but they would take on board what Mr. Treanor had stated.
Mayor Funcheon said it was hoped they could go ahead with the installation of a system for the town as soon as practical.
Cllr Jackie Crowe said they would have to explore if they could get State funding to augment the Council funding requirement for installing the system. He believed Joint Policing Committees were entitled to something like 75 per cent of grant aid.
Cllr. Gary Carville seconded Cllr. Crowe’s proposal to ascertain what financial subvention they could obtain.
The Town Clerk Mr. Savage announced the Council had some funding in reserve for a CCTV system, but it fell short of what they required.
The Committee decided to discuss details of the monitoring of the cameras, in committee.
Cllr. Aidan Campbell said they had made good progress so far in exploring the provision of a CCTV system for the town and he urged them not to allow the project to sit on the shelf for another year. They would have to go ahead and get it installed, he said.
Cllr. Brendan Hughes said it was previously suggested they could lease a CCTV system, which which might save them some money, but this would be a matter for the Council when making the final decision.
It was agreed to pass the recommendations of the Joint Poicing Committee to the Town Council.