Does Aberystwyth need its CCTV back?

It used to cost £150,000 year to watch over Ceredigion


The council currently has no plans to bring back a CCTV system in Ceredigion – despite the recent spate of violent attacks that led to a man’s ear being bitten off.

Tab Aberystwyth can confirm cuts to local council funding have prevented reintroducing the £150,000-a-year monitoring system. But it was only due to Subway’s CCTV that an image was caught of the suspect of the gruesome ear biting Halloween attack, and still councillors have no plans to push for additional CCTV, saying that it should come out of the Police budget.

Nathaniel Lann, a third year International politics and strategic studies , said: “We’re blessed with one of the safest uni towns in the country, and if there isn’t the money for CCTV then we’ll have to be a bit more responsible for our own safety. I’m sure the council can find a better way to spend £150,000, or even better, not spend it at all.”

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There have been a worrying increase in vicious attacks in the past months, with a uni worker having had his ear bitten off six months ago, and then the same happening in recent weeks to a local resident, but councillors insist any CCTV system will have to come out of the police budget.

Alun Williams, a local councillor says we are increasingly relying on shop run CCTV. They said: “Given the UK is thought to be the most surveilled state in the world, and shops and other premises are increasingly fitting their own CCTV cameras which can be used by the police as evidence, there may be less need than there once was for the kind of system that previously operated.”

Nathan Coogan, a third year Military History student agrees with the councillor. He added: “The surveillance across town is huge already, especially for a small coastal town. Rather than increased CCTV it would be more beneficial to take council funds and put them into strengthening the existing institutions.

“Any future funding for CCTV is now therefore a matter for the Police & Crime Commisioner to decide and he will obviously take into account whether he feels it is sufficiently useful to his service to warrant the funding.”

According to UKCrimeStats, Aberystwyth had 20 counts of violent crime and 54 counts of anti-social behaviour in September, although Aberystwyth is still the safest place to study in Wales, and in the top 10 safest places to study in the UK.