West Yorkshire Combined Authority is working with BT to upgrade CCTV coverage at more than 25 of its West Yorkshire bus stations – and install public Wi-Fi at eight of them.
Around 260 new Bosch HD cameras connected to a high-speed CCTV fibre network will replace the current analogue cameras at bus stations and other locations.
In partnership with BT, the Combined Authority is rolling out the five-year, £1.2m scheme, which will also see improvements made to the Combined Authority’s CCTV monitoring centre in Leeds.
The partnership will also see publicly available Wi-Fi installed in public spaces at eight bus stations. Station staff will be equipped with new personal mobile radios, and increased capacity for video recording will be created at the Leeds monitoring centre.
Cllr Keith Wakefield, Chair of West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Transport Committee, said: “Passengers and staff tell us our CCTV coverage helps them feel more secure when using our Metro Bus Stations, transport hubs and interchanges.
“Although only a tiny number of the three million-plus journeys made though our bus stations each year are affected by anti-social incidents, we take them all very seriously and this important scheme will improve the quality of CCTV coverage and the way we can store images and video.
“Additionally, this upgrade to a fully digital system is set to save the Combined Authority a five-figure sum every year, meaning it will have paid for itself in just four years.”
Although bus station surveillance is a new area of work for BT, the company has been a CCTV partner for West Yorkshire Combined Authority and its predecessors for more than ten years.
Brian Jackson, head of sales at BT’s Redcare Surveillance, said: “This is a new and exciting opportunity for us. Having previously had a number of suppliers providing separate contracts for CCTV at bus stations, West Yorkshire Combined Authority wanted to consolidate to a single source and gain more advantage from our faster, fibre surveillance network.
“We‘re the only supplier able to provide this comprehensive approach as part of our CCTV service while at the same time ensuring maximum efficiency.”
