Rooms with a View | CCTVImage The twin sails of Poole
It’s not unusual for the director of the CCTV User Group to travel right across the country, visit- ing CCTV control rooms and writing articles, but in this case he decided to focus on a control room a little closer to home, virtually in the back garden of the User Group in fact.
IT’S AN EVERYDAY occurrence to see yachts with twin sails in Poole Harbour, but few of them are watched 24/7 by the Council’s CCTV system! Most of you will be aware of the ‘Spinnaker Tower’ in Portsmouth, well Poole now has an iconic structure with the Twin Sails Bridge which, together with the 1927 Bascule lifting bridge provides vehicle and pedestrian access between Hamworthy and the commercial port to the bustling town centre area.
So what is the connection to the Borough of Poole Public Area CCTV System? Well, apart from the ten cameras on the Twin Sails Bridge and others on the bascule, for public safety, and the small bridge control room adjacent to them, this is the first CCTV control room, located in the Civic Centre about a mile and half away, that I have seen that has the ability to raise and lower the bridge decks on this vital role to keep vehicular traffic and boat traffic moving.
For me it was a nostalgic visit to the Civic Centre to meet Paul Spencer (operations centre manager) and Andrea Barnes (operations centre supervisor who concentrates on Lifeline and car parking) at the control room, as my professional career started in Poole in 1966, when doing a sandwich course to become a Civil Engineer, and I worked from the same build- ing until 1984.
As Principal Engineer – Drainage, I spent many hours, usu- ally in the evening/night at the Bascule bridge control room, watching the tide rise as then, whenever there was a tidal surge in the Channel, it always raised the risk of town centre flooding. Now with a pumping station to separate the drainage system from tidal influence, this seldom occurs. This role, however, is yet another service taken on by the control room using the cameras to identify the need for a flood alert. The CCTV system opened in July 2001 following funding
from Government grants in 1999/2000, and was upgraded in 2005. It now has 133 cameras, mainly in the town centre, but also serving a large social housing area at Turlin Moor, as well as the majority of the multi-storey car parks. The control room is to be refurbished in the near future. The Borough of Poole has always been innovative and forward thinking, and so when major roadworks were carried out around the Holes Bay part of the harbour, they installed their own fibre network, which links the Civic Centre to various council properties including the Turlin Moor area. Another link from the Civic Centre goes through the park to the Dolphin Shopping Centre and then down the high street to the Quay and now on to the Twin Sails Bridge control.
As well as the public area CCTV system and the lifting bridges, the 24/7 control room also operates the 24 hour Lifeline service currently with 1,800 customers, and moni- toring 1,400 sheltered housing customers which Paul intends to increase with addi- tional contracts from the private sector. The Lifeline arrange- ments are TSA accredited and over 90% of emergency
calls are answered within 30 seconds. For Careline there is a mutual agree- ment with neighbouring Bournemouth Borough Council, and a link between the two, to ensure continuity of service should problems arise.
Life and limb
Many years ago I felt Lifeline/Careline monitoring required different personality traits to those monitoring CCTV, but in all the joint systems I have seen subsequently, it does seem to work very well, and Poole is no exception. As Paul stresses the prime priority in the control room when doing either task, is the protection of life and limb. All operators are in-house employees, and four (including a Supervisor who does all the reviews and copies) are on duty at any time and totally multi-functional. Apart from the fixed cameras, Poole has three Stryker wireless cameras used to keep an eye one particular area where the night-time economy is vibrant, and other hot spots identified by the Police. Paul also monitors the PubWatch, ShopWatch and Airwave radios to provide intelligence of inci- dents. The control room has a good relationship with the police who are able to visit or e mail requests for information or evidence and collect in person from the Borough Operations Centre.
Spring 2013 14
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