Town the place a whole bunch of male migrants are to be housed in barracks is to splurge greater than £15,000 to bulk up its CCTV – and can ask the Home Office to assist pay for it
An East Sussex town where 540 male asylum seekers are set to be housed in barracks is planning to spend more than £15,000 on CCTV upgrades.
Migrants are set to move into the cadet camp in Crowborough as early as this month as part of a government plan to reduce the number of hotels used to house them.
Furious locals have been staging protests across the town for weeks in a bid to stop the arrivals – which were first announced last October – going ahead amid safety concerns.
Now Crowborough Town Council has agreed to spend almost £16,000 upgrading CCTV cameras in the area.
Maintenance will cost £2,471 per year on a three-year contract, following the switch-off of the cameras in 2024.
Councillors will seek reimbursement from the Home Office and have asked police to provide regular reports on the performance of the CCTV.
The funds will be taken from Crowborough Town Council’s emergency reserves.
Minutes from a council meeting in December revealed it has ‘resolved to upgrade the public-facing CCTV cameras’.
More than one thousand protestors against the asylum seeker camp in Crowborough, Sussex, marched for the ninth week in a row on Sunday
Around 20 police officers were on standby to guide the protests from the camp into the town centre
‘The Town Council shall seek reimbursement from the Home Office and Wealden District Council, and the Police shall be asked to provide regular reports to the town council on the performance of the CCTV,’ the minutes read.
The Town Council will also ask the police how long the images will be held for.
The document notes a member of the public had unanswered questions and asked if it would be appropriate to reassess existing CCTV coverage including near schools, the army camp, and Ferndale Centre.
Councillor Peter Bucklitsch explained the police approached the council and stated they wanted to improve monitoring of their CCTV in town, citing growing fears among residents about illegal migrants as the reason behind the council’s agreement to the upgrades.
Mr Bucklitsch said police want to upgrade the cameras from analogue to digital so they are better connected and can put officers on the ground at any trouble spots.
‘It made a great deal of sense, particularly since we’ve got a lot of people very very worried about the inmates of the camp coming through because it will be 2000 in total over a year.
‘None of them have been vetted, they’ve come over the channel using the maritime law loophole, which means that they are undocumented arrivals rather than an illegal entrance.
Ministers and officials are understood to be preparing the Crowborough military base to house 540 male migrants as early as this month
More than one thousand protestors march to objects to the asylum seeker camp in Crowborough on Sunday
The Home Office had hoped to start using the cadet camp in December, but those plans were delayed to ensure the site was safe
‘The home office has absolutely no idea who they are, where they came from, whether they’re ex-fighters from ISIS or what they’ve done, what they’ve done in the intervening periods, and why they’re migrating in the first place, so they know nothing about these people whatsoever.’
Mr Bucklitsch was adamant the upgrades were not solely about migrants, and explained how Crowborough have helped a lot of people on the Afghanistan program, including families.
‘The people of Crowborough got together, provided toys, help groups and all sorts of things. It’s not about migrants, absolutely nothing about migrants, it is entirely you have undocumented arrivals without the courtesy of any background checks whatsoever from the Home Office,’ he said.
On Sunday, around 1,000 people gathered at the No8 Crowborough Army Cadet Centre at 10am on an icy morning for the latest march around the town.
The local Wealden District Council joined a community-backed legal challenge led by Crowborough Shield to force a full judicial review on the Home Office’s plans to house migrants into the town.
The community group has raised more than £87,000 for legal fees and said they are angry about the lack of transparency and consultation on the Government’s decision.
The Home Office has apologised for the handling of its plans to use the Crowborough camp to house asylum seekers, but said it is determined to stamp out the use of hotels to house migrants.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment on the CCTV upgrades.
