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CCTV monitoring expanded on Household Waste Recycling Centres

Hertfordshire County Council installs camera system at 4th Household Waste Recycling Centre

Kent-based Network & Cabling Solutions Ltd. announced today that it had now installed four closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems at Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs).

The CCTV security systems consist of a number of Mobotix Internet Protocol (IP) cameras, which were installed at various locations, as part of the construction contracts for Waterdale, Royston, Harpenden and Stevenage HWRCs.

"The monitoring systems installed on our sites have proved invaluable.  We use them to analyse trends by monitoring who is using the centre, what is being thrown away and how often.  Council employees at Hertfordshire's County Hall, can remotely assist the on site contractors if needed via a live secure Internet connection.  Due to the high clarity of the camera images HCC can confirm or deny if certain materials are acceptable for disposal at the site.  They also act as a good deterrent to anyone abusing council employees or the centre itself," said HCC's Assistant Waste Manager, Mark Simpkins.

A total of nearly thirty cameras are now installed at various locations across the above sites including the entrances and exits, which enables HCC to check vehicle registration plates, which is useful when reviewing incidents or specific customers using each centre.  Due to the success of these cameras HCC are now looking into rolling the system out to all suitable HWRCs.

"Hertfordshire residents produce more than a tonne of rubbish per household, per year - an amount that is growing.  Therefore there is more and more pressure on councils to reduce this amount and limit what is sent to landfill, through education, recycling and re-use activities", said HCC's Executive Member for Planning, Partnerships and Waste, Derrick Ashley.

The Mobotix cameras used in these installations are some of the latest generation of ‘event-driven' security cameras available.  They operate by recognising image changes in fixed image segments at predetermined times.  These ‘events' can then be sent via email, answer-fax, SMS message or telephone, to the event viewer on a monitoring station.  Equipped with a variety of lenses, to suit different applications and day/night scenarios, the cameras are suitable for a number of applications in schools, hospitals and offices.  They are easy to install and operate and use less power than conventional CCTV cameras.