Legislation cripples CCTV cameras
CCTV Dunoon Ltd, the company which implemented the town centre’s highly effective camera system, will cease operating on October 31.
Negotiations are now taking place with Argyll and Bute Council and Strathclyde Police in order that the administration of the scheme can continue without interruption, with camera coverage remaining in place.
The main reason for the situation in which CCTV Dunoon Ltd finds itself, is legislation due to come into effect on November 1. The Security Industry Authority (SIA) – responsible for regulating private security business – will require CCTV operators, directors and administrators to hold licences and undergo specialist training under the new Private Security Industry Act.
As well as the cost of licensing and training, the new legislation will cause practical problems in terms of providing cover while operators are away on training courses, as well as an increased administrative load.
While councils and large companies may have the resources and finance to absorb these extra costs, for community-based groups such as CCTV Dunoon Ltd, they can be impossible to overcome.
If the system continues to operate without obtaining the appropriate licences, after November 1 all images taken by the cameras could potentially be challenged by defence counsels in court as unlicensed and therefore unable to be used as legal evidence - making the CCTV network pointless.
Efforts have been made to gain exemption from the regulations, but the Scottish Government has advised CCTV user groups to take the SIA to court. There have been various instances of this in England with very limited success.
Since its inauguration in 1996, the local group has worked hard to raise funds, source quality hardware, recruit operatives and deal with ongoing administration and maintenance of the camera system which has grown to its current level of twelve town centre cameras providing coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Although the system has been augmented, public funding has not. CCTV Dunoon Ltd is a member of the Argyll CCTV Users Group which receives block funding from Argyll and Bute Council and Strathclyde Police. However, although additional town groups have joined over the years, the “pot of money” available has not been increased - so the share for each group has decreased.
Michael Boyce, secretary of CCTV Dunoon Ltd, said: “All of us in CCTV Dunoon regret this turn of events, as we believe that CCTV has greatly benefited the people of Dunoon for many years at a very acceptable cost.
He continued: “On a personal note, I am sorry that none of us will be involved in the next stage of the cameras’ evolution.
“It may be of interest to know that in the last six and a half years, the cameras and operators have recorded 4,483 incidents, not counting 1,500 alarm activations.
“We earnestly hope that the facilities will continue after October 31, but sadly this is no longer in our hands.”
Mr Boyce confirmed that the camera hardware would remain in situ.
Dunoon Police confirmed that the local CCTV system is “a key element” in dealing with crime.
“Every effort will be made by Strathclyde Police to ensure that the level of service to Dunoon remains,” said Chief Inspector Andrew Mosley. “We are working very hard with the local authority to manage the issue, and pulling out all the stops to maintain the service.
“We are working towards continuous coverage and I see no reason why this won’t happen, although there are procedural and resources issues to be resolved.”
When asked to confirm if Argyll and Bute Council would be taking over responsibility for the CCTV system, including continuous service provision with no coverage gap, a council spokesperson said: “We can confirm that the council is currently in discussion with Argyll and Bute CCTV Users Group on this matter, and that discussions are proceeding on the basis that there will be no gap in service provision.”


Mather marks 100 days in power
The SNP minority administration in Holyrood has released a ‘report card’ on the first 100 days in which the party has held power.
In a breakneck series of political initiatives, the SNP has begun, amongst many other things - a review of the shape and number of government departments and quangos; a push towards a freeze on council taxes; and most recently ordered a re-branding of the ‘Scottish Executive’ to become ‘The Scottish Government’.
Whatever the direction of your political leanings, nobody could accuse the SNP of resting on its laurels.
Argyll and Bute MSP Jim Mather said: “It has been a privilege to represent Argyll and Bute over these first 100 days and I am happy to have seen our new government deliver for this constituency and for the country as a whole.
“I have spent many of my first 100 days in the constituency meeting constituents and organisations across Argyll and Bute, bringing people together and helping local communities set their goals and identify what needs to be done to deliver a better social, economic and environmental future.
“By the first week in September we will have run Community Consultation Sessions in Mull (twice), Islay, Cowal, Kintyre and Bute.
“In these sessions I have focused on finding potential solutions to the problems faced by Argyll and Bute whether it is development hold ups due to Scottish Water, rural transport services or ensuring that public services remain local wherever possible. Having just finished a summer travelling around the constituency I have been struck by the positive reaction I am encountering across Argyll and Bute to the new government’s first 100 days.
“The SNP government has started work on reintroducing the Campbeltown-Ballycastle ferry, is getting to grips with issues surrounding the Gourock-Dunoon ferry service, has provided funding for school buildings and youth projects in Argyll, and supported key rural medical services.


GROUPS IN JOINT LOTTERY BID
At one of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Community Partnership Cowal area network meetings, five local Community Development Trusts wondered if a combined local bid for Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) would be possible.
Three widely publicised community workshops were held in Kilmun, Lochgoilhead and Strachur and a total of 110 local people participated on a drop-in basis.
There were stands with displays about the area’s access, landscapes and heritage and participants were invited to suggest projects that they felt would enhance the local area. These projects were consolidated onto a summary map and table and classified into access, landscape and heritage projects.
The partnership has the support of the other partners in this scheme – the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Argyll and the Islands Enterprise and Argyll and Bute Council. In the preparation of this bid the Dunoon and Cowal Heritage Trust has also joined the partnership.
It has also gained the support of three key private sector companies in the area – Drimsynie Estates who manage a number of large holiday parks, the expanding Holy Loch Marina in Sandbank, and Western Ferries who run the vehicular ferry service from Gourock to Hunter’s Quay. An application for support to local community groups is being made to Western Ferries during the autumn of 2007.
The proposed landscape partnership scheme is a four to five-year project designed to contribute to the conservation and enhancement of both the natural and historic features of the landscape of the Argyll Forest Park, to better highlight these features for the benefit of the local tourism economy, and to increase local residents’ involvement with the heritage of their area.
The application is for HLF funding of approximately £980,000 towards the total scheme of £1.55m. This represents 62 percent of the total costs with the remainder largely being contributed by four public sector partners. Some financial contributions from the private sector and from the local Community Development Trusts have also been secured.
It is hoped that each of the five development trusts will have at least one project within their area - some of the planned projects are Ardentinny walled garden; Kilmun Church, graveyard and mausoleum; Lochgoil Arboretum; Lochgoil garden trail/open day; Strachur Bay area landscape; Gypsy’s Heart at Hell’s Glen road end; Loch Eck biodiversity project; Holy Loch walkway, marine interpretation and visitor centre; heritage booklets and website; outreach services by Dunoon and Cowal Heritage Trust; holiday village Information, and Benmore car park information shelter.
The main planned project is to develop the ancient settlement at Cormonachan close to Carrick Castle by clearing woodlands and making it accessible to visitors.
It is also hoped to provide training programmes to cover a variety of aspects, from training guides to informing B&B owners about what’s on in the local area.
The group is currently at the stage of applying for the first part of the funding.


Argyll is on the up
A speech on Monday presented by Professor James Hunter, the new University of the Highlands and Islands’ History Director, painted a very positive view of the future for the whole of the Highlands, including Argyll and the Isles.
In the annual Henry Duncan Prize lecture to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Professor Hunter argued that a new sense of optimism and self-confidence is spreading across the northern and western reaches of Scotland, replacing past notions of economic depression.
Professor Hunter, a past chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise cited past neglect and hostility towards the Highland population as a major reason for a decline which, as he claimed, has been ongoing since the middle ages.
Clearance of whole communities to make way for sheep flocks in the late 18th and early 19th centuries contributed to poverty in remote communities. Poverty gave way to famine - on a modern-day African scale - as potato blight decimated the staple food of the Highlander.
Depopulation inevitably followed, on a massive scale, as people fled the squalor of their cold, damp and hungry existence to seek new wealth in the New World.
As a result, Professor Hunter claimed: “Advancement, in the Highlands and Islands had become synonymous with being elsewhere. To be still in your own locality in your mid-twenties was, almost by definition, to have failed.”
This attitude, he said, is now a relic of the past. In support of this view, he used the example of Gigha, which has organised itself into a well-run, progressive community since local people managed to purchase their own island five years ago. Since that time, under the guidance of the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust, the island’s population has risen dramatically, along with the school roll. Business opportunities and renewable energy initiatives have been created and houses built. All in all, a sense of optimism abounds on Gigha.
This, he argued, is being recreated all over Argyll and the rest of the Highlands and Islands.
Far from going ‘to Hell in a handbasket’, as Professor Hunter puts it, the Highlands is now on the up. Young people who were raised in Highland glens are returning home, often with families, and the population is rising at a faster rate than any other part of Scotland.