Westminster Council has topped a national list for expenditure on CCTV according to new research by campaign group, Big Brother Watch.
The report, called 'Are They Still Watching?', shows that the local authority's record dwarfs its next closest rival, with a total spend of £7.3million between 2012 and 2015, compared with Birmingham's £5.6m.
Despite holding responsibility for more than eight times the number of cameras as its London counterpart, Hammersmith and Fulham spent £2.4m on the installation, maintenance and monitoring of 1,150 units compared with just 134 in Westminster.
It means Westminster Council spent an average of just over £13,600 per year on each camera.
The report is based on a series of freedom of information (FOI) requests that showed that total UK council spending on CCTV is down by 28% compared with the period between 2007 and 2011.
However, the group warned of the possibility of a future increase in public expenditure with advancing surveillance technology.
In his forward to the report, Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter said “I am certain that new and advancing technologies will see further investment by local authorities to deliver new and exciting capabilities.”
Cameras used to manage traffic and community safety
A total of £92m per year is spent on CCTV by town halls, meaning that Westminster alone accounts for 1.5% of the total national spend.
The annual cost of its systems amounts to £1.47m, of which £376,000 was used to pay staff costs associated with running the systems in 2014.
The metropolitan borough has overtaken Birmingham for the top spot in CCTV expenditure since a similar report by the group in 2012, which showed that the council had spent £11.8m on 153 cameras over the preceding four years - an extra £4.5m on 21 more cameras than today's figures.
In response to the report, a council spokesman said: “We continue to fund CCTV as one element of our approach to help manage traffic and also to support community safety in Westminster.”
