‘Bureaucracy gone out of control’

Fury over delays to roll out local CCTV projects

Anger and frustration were vented by members at last Friday’s meeting of Tipperary Joint Policing Committee over the ongoing delay in rolling out planned CCTV projects in five locations across the county, including Burgess, Birdhill, Borrisokane and Roscrea.

Committee Chairman Noel Coonan said people were getting very angry over the delays. A lot of the groups who had worked on bringing the schemes to fruition were comprised of volunteers who were making the effort for the benefit of their communities and to help the garda tackle crime.

“Bureaucracy has really gone out of control,” he said, his voice resonating with frustration.

“Roscrea had been mentioned at previous meetings but there is no mention of the scheme planned for the town now.

“We are meeting nothing but impediment after impediment,” he said. “It's like beating your head off a stone wall. Bureaucracy is letting us down.”

Committee Secretary Eddie Meegan said an issue had arisen with equipment for the Roscrea scheme that was to be erected on one of the local churches. If that issue could not be resolved it would mean the scheme in Roscrea would have to be planned from scratch again.

BORRISOKANE SCHEME

Cllr Ger Darcy wanted to know the timeframe now for the rollout of the long-delayed scheme planned for Borrisokane. The holdups were very frustrating for everyone involved.

“People are sick and tired and fed up with it now after doing all the work,” said. “They are starting to lose confidence at this stage.”

Cllr Darcy added: “This is beyond frustrating for all the volunteers who worked on these schemes and the committee in Borrisokane is very upset about the whole thing, to be honest.”

Council Director Pat Slattery conceded that it had been a frustrating process. Tipperary County Council had provided funding for schemes and driven the process. However, obstacles in delivering the schemes continued to crop up and the rules governing such schemes were being changed further up the line.

Mr Meegan said that since the last meeting of the committee in December Limerick County Council had been fined €100,000 by the Data Protection Commission for the use of unauthorised CCTV cameras. This development had caused a lot of nerves around the country from other local authorities planning to roll out similar schemes.

Mr Meegan said that from the council’s and community groups’ side of things, a lot of work had already been done to try to ensure that the five schemes got up and running in Tipperary.

Meanwhile, Mr Slattery urged the community group that had been driving the scheme in Roscrea to make contact. He said its members seem to have “gone a bit cold” with the council and he urged them to re-engage.

Cllr Richie Molloy said people in his own area of Clonmel were getting very frustrated because long planned CCTV schemes in Highfield Road in the town and near the rugby club had not proceeded. He urged that a staff representative from garda headquarters specialising in CCTV schemes be asked to attend the next meeting of the committee to explain what was causing the hold-ups.

Garda Chief Superintendent for Tipperary Derek Smart said that while it seemed nothing was being achieved, a lot of work to deliver the five projects in Tipperary had already been done. Now it was down to a situation where the schemes had to comply with data protection regulations and nobody in Tipperary wanted to be put in a situation where schemes were up and running and then cameras had to be switched off because they did not comply with the laws.

It was agreed to ask an official from Garda headquarters to attend the next meeting of the committee to explain exactly what was causing the delays.