SECURITY chiefs have defended CCTV after repeated “heartbreaking” damage to a Teesside allotment complex.

Thornaby Town Council has pledged to buy a camera to help cover Thornaby Road allotments on a trial basis after a string of break-ins.

But councillors have shared doubts about the difference it will make – and how well monitored the footage actually is. 

Stockton Council staffs a 24/7 monitoring centre keeping an eye on 340 cameras around the borough. 

Village ward councillor Mick Moore told town council colleagues how troublemakers were “basically taking the p***” out of allotment holders by repeatedly breaking in. 

He said the tenants had asked for CCTV from the town council after unsuccessfully trying via Cleveland Police and Stockton Council.

However, monitoring costs and the impact they actually made triggered doubts from the chamber. 

Cllr Ray Godwin said: “The problem is Stockton Council aren’t employing any extra staff – they’re just taking the extra money for every camera which goes up.

“The monitoring is getting less efficient, the response is getting less efficient and the cops and the judicial system are getting less efficient – yet the cost of the cameras aren’t going down.”

Stockton’s CCTV centre dealt with more than 5,600 incidents last year – with officials also revealing it had contributed to “several nationally significant operations” to tackle organised crime. 

The council also says the number of staff monitoring the devices has increased in recent years.

But how the devices are paid for remains a hot topic.

Stockton councillors receive a ward budget every year to pay for projects in their area.

However, it doesn’t cover expensive schemes – and the town council meeting heard how Mandale and Victoria councillors had already spent all theirs on cameras. 

Thornaby mayor Cllr Steve Walmsley said the allocations were “ridiculous” and a “con”. 

“It’s gone and you only get so much,” he added. “When we went down there, there’d been loads of allotments broken into. It’s not my game but it was heartbreaking the people coming out. There was a load saying the same thing. It happens time after time.

“The most annoying part was the names brought up were the same names we’ve had all the problems with down this bottom end. All the police are doing is they take them in and they’re let back out again. They go to court and they’re let back out again.

“We’ve got a situation where there’s a culture now where they feel they’re untouchable. The likes of the allotments might seem a small kind of thing. But if we don’t do it, nobody’s doing it.”

Cllr Godwin questioned whether a camera would “push problems ten yards down the road”.

He added: “I do feel for the allotment owners deeply – but they put their hoodies over their heads and do exactly the same damage with the cameras there.”

Cllr Walmsley said if the police didn’t respond, the cameras were a waste of time. 

“It sends out the message that at least Thornaby Town Council is prepared to b***** do something,” he added. 

“Let’s get policing challenged in Thornaby because it’s dire.”

The 30-acre allotments off Thornaby Road are managed by Stockton across four sites.

A Stockton Council spokesman said: “We were saddened to hear of the break-ins at Thornaby allotments.

“Over the past ten years, the cost of CCTV has significantly dropped as improvements in technology have led to reductions in the unit costs. 

“This has led to more cameras being installed in problem areas than ever before. The number of staff monitoring cameras has also increased over recent years.”

Council figures showed CCTV operators had dealt with 467 incidents in Thornaby in 2021 – up from 343 in 2019, and officials defended their record in the town. 

The spokesman added: “The number of arrests as a result of CCTV intervention has increased from 35 in 2019 to 74 last year – testament to the increase in camera numbers.

“CCTV cameras in Thornaby have been used for a wide range of incidents and these include hundreds of anti-social behaviour incidents, footage of which has led to interventions by regulatory services.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Cleveland Police on 101.