Is this the CCTV vote?
Bob and Betty | 24.11.2006 22:44 | Social Struggles | Birmingham
Is this the CCTV vote?
A questionnaire was delivered to the residents of Birchwood Road and Alder Road in Balsall Heath on the 14th of November. This asks various ‘Yes/No’ and tick box questions about crime and the perception of crime. One question asks: “What time of the day do you feel most unsafe?” and offers 3 different times of the day and evening to tick. It doesn’t though, first ask: ‘Do you ever feel unsafe?’
Every question appears in fact to be leading you to answer the final question by saying ‘yes’, you do want to keep the CCTV camera. The questionnaire certainly doesn’t ask for people’s concerns about surveillance and their perception of how the CCTV camera impacts on their civil liberties.
That final question in the questionnaire appears to be the ‘vote’ that Becky Jones, the ward support officer promised residents in a letter sent on the 15th of September, which said that a number of things would happen before the vote on whether to keep the camera?
This has been quoted on Indymedia in a previous article, but this is what that letter said:
“To ensure that residents can make an informed and knowledgeable decision regarding the future of this camera, it was agreed that Local Services within Hall Green Constituency, will do a review of this project this will then be taken to the residents for them to make a final decision on the CCTV camera’s future.
The review will include:
• “Identify concerns regarding the consultation process.
• Outcome of visits made by residents to the monitoring station.
• Costs incurred and ongoing costs to be met.
• Revue of CCTV effectiveness – using up to date data from other similar schemes.
• Identifying other option/solutions which may be available to either replace, or enhance, a community safety project for the area.
• Discussions from a further meeting convened with residents to share with them the outcomes of the work undertaken within this revue.
• Once all this information has been gathered and shared with all residents in Birchwood and Alder Roads then every resident will be asked to give their final vote to decide if the camera remains.”
This means that residents should have been told how much the camera was costing, what the alternatives are and whether it does what they claim it does, before they were asked whether they wanted to keep the camera.
The Anti CCTV campaign has asked how much the camera is costing. In response to a ‘Freedom of Information’ request Becky Jones has written that this camera has cost £17,767 for this year, and that the total for this and the other 5 cameras in the ward is £105,967. This money is all from Neighbourhood Renewal Funding. Many local organisations have been refused NRF funding including ‘Practical Care for the Elderly and Disabled’ and lights for the football pitch in Balsall Heath park which Birchwood Road backs on to.
Many residents are in fact in an organisation called ‘Friends of Balsall Heath Park’ which is seeking funding for improvements to the park following the tornado last year.
The letter from Becky Jones that accompanied the questionnaire says she wants a “100% reply from residents”. However that is peculiar as households have only received one questionnaire. The fact that only one questionnaire was delivered to each house is perhaps reminiscent of the third Reform Act of 1884 which enfranchised all male house owners. In fact the envelope could as easily have been addressed to the householder.
It certainly appears that the presentation of this questionnaire contravenes the ‘Equality Act’ of 2006, and in particular the ‘Gender Equality Duty’ which the City Council is obliged to follow, the latter puts a positive duty on public sector bodies to promote equality of opportunity between women and men and eliminate sex discrimination.
We in the Anti CCTV campaign think it would have been more appropriate to have consulted the electoral register or the council tax register to identify the adults living in a household and to have then addressed the questionnaire directly to them.
Who knows perhaps they should even have asked young people, but perhaps like everyone else they assume that young people are all involved with drugs, crime and ‘Anti social behaviour’.
The Anti CCTV campaign has written to Becky Jones and Equality & Diversity Division of the City Council about the concern that the presentation of the questionnaire is discriminatory.
We have also distributed a leaflet to residents which asks:
The questionnaire has now arrived – so how do we respond to it?
Don’t forget to join us to lobby your councillors at the Sparkbrook Ward Committee Meeting Thursday 30th November 2006 at 7.30pm, New Clifton JI School, St Paul's Road, B12.
This CCTV camera is on the Agenda – Tell them what you think!
A questionnaire was delivered to the residents of Birchwood Road and Alder Road in Balsall Heath on the 14th of November. This asks various ‘Yes/No’ and tick box questions about crime and the perception of crime. One question asks: “What time of the day do you feel most unsafe?” and offers 3 different times of the day and evening to tick. It doesn’t though, first ask: ‘Do you ever feel unsafe?’
Every question appears in fact to be leading you to answer the final question by saying ‘yes’, you do want to keep the CCTV camera. The questionnaire certainly doesn’t ask for people’s concerns about surveillance and their perception of how the CCTV camera impacts on their civil liberties.
That final question in the questionnaire appears to be the ‘vote’ that Becky Jones, the ward support officer promised residents in a letter sent on the 15th of September, which said that a number of things would happen before the vote on whether to keep the camera?
This has been quoted on Indymedia in a previous article, but this is what that letter said:
“To ensure that residents can make an informed and knowledgeable decision regarding the future of this camera, it was agreed that Local Services within Hall Green Constituency, will do a review of this project this will then be taken to the residents for them to make a final decision on the CCTV camera’s future.
The review will include:
• “Identify concerns regarding the consultation process.
• Outcome of visits made by residents to the monitoring station.
• Costs incurred and ongoing costs to be met.
• Revue of CCTV effectiveness – using up to date data from other similar schemes.
• Identifying other option/solutions which may be available to either replace, or enhance, a community safety project for the area.
• Discussions from a further meeting convened with residents to share with them the outcomes of the work undertaken within this revue.
• Once all this information has been gathered and shared with all residents in Birchwood and Alder Roads then every resident will be asked to give their final vote to decide if the camera remains.”
This means that residents should have been told how much the camera was costing, what the alternatives are and whether it does what they claim it does, before they were asked whether they wanted to keep the camera.
The Anti CCTV campaign has asked how much the camera is costing. In response to a ‘Freedom of Information’ request Becky Jones has written that this camera has cost £17,767 for this year, and that the total for this and the other 5 cameras in the ward is £105,967. This money is all from Neighbourhood Renewal Funding. Many local organisations have been refused NRF funding including ‘Practical Care for the Elderly and Disabled’ and lights for the football pitch in Balsall Heath park which Birchwood Road backs on to.
Many residents are in fact in an organisation called ‘Friends of Balsall Heath Park’ which is seeking funding for improvements to the park following the tornado last year.
The letter from Becky Jones that accompanied the questionnaire says she wants a “100% reply from residents”. However that is peculiar as households have only received one questionnaire. The fact that only one questionnaire was delivered to each house is perhaps reminiscent of the third Reform Act of 1884 which enfranchised all male house owners. In fact the envelope could as easily have been addressed to the householder.
It certainly appears that the presentation of this questionnaire contravenes the ‘Equality Act’ of 2006, and in particular the ‘Gender Equality Duty’ which the City Council is obliged to follow, the latter puts a positive duty on public sector bodies to promote equality of opportunity between women and men and eliminate sex discrimination.
We in the Anti CCTV campaign think it would have been more appropriate to have consulted the electoral register or the council tax register to identify the adults living in a household and to have then addressed the questionnaire directly to them.
Who knows perhaps they should even have asked young people, but perhaps like everyone else they assume that young people are all involved with drugs, crime and ‘Anti social behaviour’.
The Anti CCTV campaign has written to Becky Jones and Equality & Diversity Division of the City Council about the concern that the presentation of the questionnaire is discriminatory.
We have also distributed a leaflet to residents which asks:
The questionnaire has now arrived – so how do we respond to it?
Don’t forget to join us to lobby your councillors at the Sparkbrook Ward Committee Meeting Thursday 30th November 2006 at 7.30pm, New Clifton JI School, St Paul's Road, B12.
This CCTV camera is on the Agenda – Tell them what you think!
Bob and Betty