New CCTV vans have been launched by Wandsworth Council in a crackdown on anti-social behaviour.
In a press release last Friday, Wandsworth Council announced three CCTV vans have been implemented across the borough, paid for by the council’s £9million Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF).
The funding will also help towards increasing CCTV monitoring by an extra 150 hours each month in the Joint Control Centre (JCC).
Graeme Henderson, Wandsworth Council’s cabinet member for Health, told The Londoners: “We have listened to the concerns of our communities, who have asked us to deploy more CCTV in specific areas.
“These new CCTV vans will ensure we can swiftly and proactively target crime and anti-social behaviour areas.
“We also want to deter those who cause crime and anti-social behaviour in our borough and provide wider reassurance to our communities.
“The safety of women and girls remains a priority for us, and we want all our residents to feel safe around the borough – especially when in and around our town centres and travelling in the evening and late at night.
“Our investment in CCTV has yielded positive results by working in partnership with the police, and we want to make sure that our residents feel protected and supported so that they are confident in reporting crime and anti-social behaviour.”
“Wandsworth is one of the safest boroughs in London, and we intend to keep it that way.”
Residents across Wandsworth Council have expressed mixed opinions to the new vans.
Rahul Marwaha, a 28-year-old bartender from south east London, said safety is “really important to everybody”, while Philip Dunn, a 63-year-old retail worker from Balham, said: “They should spend the money on better things… potholes.”
Wandsworth is one of the first councils in south west London to utilise mobile CCTV vans.
A Kingston Council spokesperson said they have no plans to implement them, while a Croydon Council spokesperson said they are investing in improving their mobile cameras, which are temporarily deployed across the borough in crime hotspots.
The NRF uses funding from Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) payments, which the council secures and collects from developers to reinvest into the local area.
The JCC, which logged 62,217 calls in 2024, is a control room which monitors CCTV cameras in the boroughs of Wandsworth and Richmond upon Thames, as well as out-of-hours emergencies including fires, floods, and road traffic accidents.
Featured image credit: Mickey Lee
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