A local business owner has told Your Herefordshire that he is growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of action from authorities in relation to the ever-increasing issue of anti-social behaviour on Eign Gate in Hereford city centre.
Terry who owns Matrix in Eign Gate has been alerted by staff and customers over recent weeks to people drinking alcohol in the street outside and even a report of a person urinating in the street, in full view of customers in Matrix. There was also an incident where a person in a mobility scooter crashed into barriers outside the centre a number of times.
A number of the planters in Eign Gate that were installed by Herefordshire Council have graffiti on them and Terry says that more action needs to be taken by Herefordshire Council and West Mercia Police to curb the problem.
Terry told Your Herefordshire that he and a number of other business owners in the area are concerned that if this continues to be a problem, there will be a drop in footfall in the area which will have an impact on businesses at what is already a very difficult time for most.
Nearly £27,000 is to be spent on upgrading Hereford’s CCTV cameras, with funding from the Police & Crime Commissioner allocated by Herefordshire Council.
Herefordshire Council says that in 2020 the CCTV in market towns across Herefordshire was upgraded to high definition (HD) internet protocol (IP) cameras. This was in the main to reduce eventually transmission revenue costs.
Hereford city CCTV cameras remained as old analogue cameras with the proviso that these would be updated as and when capital funds became available. The Police & Crime Commissioner has made capital funds of £27,084 available. These funds will renew 5 old analogue cameras to HD IP cameras with particular emphasis on renewing CCTV cameras that are old failing links as a priority.
The council has therefore decided to authorise spend of £26,749 of West Mercia Police PCC capital grant fund monies to purchase and install replacement CCTV equipment.
This work will complement the current work of the Safer Streets 3 project which is seeing additional CCTV cameras being installed across Hereford city to provide safer environments in key areas of the city.
To be able to upgrade old analogue cameras to High Definition Internet Protocol will provide much improved vision in the areas where the cameras are
