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12
Oct 2022
Harrogate Borough Council installed 76 new CCTV cameras in past 3 years
The Harrogate district has experienced a 36% increase in the number of CCTV cameras over the past 3 years — which ranks it above the national average of 22%.
Harrogate Borough Council installed 76 new public CCTV cameras in the past three years, according to new research.
In total 290 cameras now operate throughout the district.
IronmongeryDirect, a specialist ironmongery, issued Freedom of Information requests to all local authorities in England and Wales and found that almost seven in 10 have increased their CCTV presence since 2019.
The Harrogate district's increase of 36% over the past three years ranks it above the national average of 22%.
It has experienced the 53rd largest percentage increase in cameras of the 308 councils that replied to the survey.
In Yorkshire as a whole, only York and Doncaster increased the number of CCTV cameras at a faster rate than Harrogate.
Overall the research found the number of public CCTV cameras in the UK has now risen to more than 100,000, with some local authorities more than quadrupling their surveillance over the last three years.
The authority with the highest increase in the UK was Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, where the council now operates 468 cameras – a whopping increase of 363%.
Dominick Sandford, managing director at IronmongeryDirect, said:
“CCTV is an integral part of modern-day society, and cameras have grown more commonplace in recent years as technology and connectivity have improved.
“The increases revealed in our research might raise privacy concerns, but generally CCTV benefits the safety and security of both the public and businesses, and the upwards trend is unlikely to stop anytime soon.”
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