CCTV cameras have featured in discussions lately online and face-to-face.

There was a question on the All About Goole Facebook discussion group asking who now operated the CCTV cameras in Goole. The answer given was that Goole company Fisher Security no longer operates the cameras, the contract has been given to East Riding Council’s favoured company in Bridlington, if your writer understands correctly, to add to their portfolio of towns monitored. This means the town is being monitored by people who are not familiar with the town and located over 40 miles away. Do we know anything about them ? Can we trust them?

That issue of trust is crucial. Consider how often there are requests for doorbell security camera footage in connection with an alleged crime. Are the security cameras operated from Bridlington actually working? If they are working, are they being monitored effectively? If they are being monitored, are the cameras being used to monitor crime or keep residents the councillors and executive staff don’t like under surveillance? To what extent can we trust the two councils not to abuse the CCTV systems, based on their patterns of behaviour?

During this week, your writer noticed a man in the library cleaning what looked like large baubles in the ceiling. I asked staff what they were for. The answer was security cameras. I looked round and counted 10. The position of some gives whoever is operating the cameras opportunities to read what is on people’s digital devices, what they are reading, and what they are writing. People who are visiting Council Customer Services and Opportunity Goole are often showing very sensitive documentation. We should be able to trust those who monitor the CCTV not to abuse the CCTV system. But given that their income depends on being in the good books of the councillors and executive team, can we?

Your writer asked where the notice informing the public they are being monitored is located, having looked around with someone and failed to find any in the library. It is a legal requirement to have at least one, and preferably more. One should be clearly displayed in the entrance. I was shown 4 signs. The only one in the library is nowhere near the entrance. It is one of several on a noticeboard on the back wall in the public computer area. 

The other three are all in the windows facing outside the library. They are generic ‘This area is monitored by CCTV, controlled by East Riding Council.’ Which gives the impression that it is the street that is monitored, not the inside of the library. ALL THREE SIGNS ARE AT SHIN LEVEL, NOT AT EYE LEVEL.

One of the outdoor facing signs is in the window immediately by the doors at the library entrance. It is at shin level and as you approach the library the doors automatically open largely concealing the sign, and anyway how many people look to the floor on the left as they walk into the building? 

This speaks volumes about an organisational culture that obeys the letter of the law so can’t be sanctioned by courts and regulators, is figuratively giving the finger to the spirit of the law, and likely laughing at the public who are forced by law to pay council tax and precepts to pay for being treated with this cynical contempt.

You can see that culture at work in many aspects of both councils. How do you feel about over 50 HMOs forced on Goole against the wishes of the great majority of residents, and none in Beverley? Do you feel the Town Deal money is being spent on what East Riding Council wants with Goole residents given no meaningful say? Do you feel the library is being moved away from the town centre and the museum against the wishes of the users? Do you feel both councils are setting up businesses to compete with existing Goole businesses, using council tax and precepts to underwrite risk when normal Goole entrepreneurs bear all the risk themselves? Given how minimalist Goole Town Council minutes are these days, how can we tell what is going on anyway? The Town Council line is the public should attend meetings. You can only ask questions with permission. But given the way the mayor and other councillors attack and insult anyone who disagrees with them, what would attending actually achieve?

Do you trust councillors and executive staff ?