More CCTV cameras to target West End phone snatchers as London borough sets low council tax bill

Westminster plans to summation its stock of bills by 4.99 per cent from April. When added to the accrued request from the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, this volition instrumentality its benchmark set D bills supra £1,000 for the archetypal time, to a full of £1,017.

The council’s caller fund includes £2m to treble the size of its CCTV camera network, from 100 to 200 cameras, including up to 40 caller cameras successful the West End, focused connected Leicester Square and Soho.

The assembly said the enlargement of CCTV cameras was its astir important information concern successful astir a decade.

Last twelvemonth Westminster acceptable the 2nd lowest measure successful the superior astatine £973, conscionable £12 up of Wandsworth.

For the 2025/26 year, Westminster – which, similar Wandsworth, is simply a erstwhile Tory flagship borough that has been nether Labour power since 2022 – volition summation its stock of set D bills by £25.04.

It means that Westminster residents volition wage astir arsenic overmuch to Sir Sadiq for services including the Metropolitan police and London occurrence brigade (£490.38) arsenic they volition for assembly services specified arsenic thoroughfare cleaning and societal attraction (£526.80).

This volition instrumentality set D bills successful Richmond, which is tally by the Lib-Dems, to £2,372.

Richmond, which was down Kingston, Croydon and Harrow successful presumption of the size of its assembly taxation request past year, said 60 per cent of its spending went connected societal attraction for susceptible residents.

In Westminster, the assembly began rolling retired its ain CCTV cameras past year.

They usage sound detection AI exertion to alert the power centre to imaginable incidents. The AI strategy tin observe noises that transcend definite defined parameters, specified arsenic shouting oregon large abrupt noises.

Footage person been shared with constabulary to enactment prosecutions. Incidents captured by the cameras see a combat betwixt 2 men that resulted successful an arrest, cause use, vandalism and transgression damage, burglary, robbery and alert tipping.

The assembly besides plans to make a caller squad to combat anti-social behaviour and enlistee other officers to combat sound nuisance.

It volition walk £140m buying much properties to usage arsenic impermanent accommodation for radical connected its lodging waiting list, successful a bid to curb the monolithic outgo of lodging families successful hotels.

The assembly besides wants to summation the fig of concern betterment districts (BIDs) successful Westminster by balloting to renew 7 existing BIDs and creating up to 5 caller ones.

BIDs necessitate firms to lend towards efforts to amended their country and to trim crime, helping to pull concern and make jobs.

Westminster volition besides make much “school streets” to forestall parents doing the “school run” by car from worsening contamination extracurricular schools.

Westminster assembly person Adam Hug said: “Safety and assurance for our residents – whether connected the streets, keeping a extortion implicit their heads oregon with assistance for the little well-off – is astatine the precise bosom of this budget.

“Like each London councils, we are facing unprecedented demands connected our services with spiralling costs for lodging and care. I americium arrogant that we person been capable done cautious absorption and savings to people wealth to those who request it astir portion keeping a emergence successful assembly taxation to the bare minimum.

“Wherever you unrecorded successful Westminster, you should beryllium capable to bask your surroundings without fearfulness of groups hanging astir connected corners, dealing drugs oregon different anti-social behaviour and making a noise.

“Our mobile cameras are already helping successful tribunal prosecutions and we volition deploy them wherever residents request them most.”