Security cameras are needed to protect vulnerable tenants in council flats from drug gangs, according to a Conservative councillor.
Dawn Barnett said that older residents had been increasingly targeted by dealers who used cuckooing – taking over someone’s home – as part of their drugs trade.
Councillor Barnett said that Brighton and Hove City Council should instal CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras at its over-50s blocks.
She said that action was required from the council to get on top of this issue which was happening in properties for which it was responsible.
The council said that it took the issue seriously but had no evidence of over-50s specifically being targeted.
The Hangleton and Knoll councillor said that she planned to call on the Housing Committee to act at a meeting next month – not just in her ward but across Brighton and Hove.
Councillor Barnett said: “We’ve got a lot of over-50s housing blocks up by the hospital and on the Ditchling Road that have been targeted for cuckooing and we need to protect our elderly residents there.
“The over-50s blocks need CCTV cameras in the entrance to see who’s going in and out because there have been cases of cuckooing in those blocks with the very elderly.
“These council-run over-50s blocks have some vulnerable residents in their eighties and I’m aware of cases where they’ve been cuckooed two or three times.
“Until the council gets on top of this drug dealing and cuckooing going on at council-owned property we’re not going to get anywhere with tackling crime in the city.
“We need CCTV and I’ll be asking for it at the next council meeting for housing.”
The former leader of the council Mary Mears backed the move. Councillor Mears, who speaks for the Conservatives on the Housing Committee, said: “Our Conservative team on the Housing Committee, including our newly elected councillor Anne Meadows, will be fully supporting Councillor Barnett’s proposal to protect the vulnerable residents in the city.
“The council has been talking about the issue of cuckooing for a while and is now saying it is thinking of holding a drug summit to talk about it more – but our tenants need action now.
“We are aware of cases where council flats have been targeted for cuckooing three or four times but nothing has been done.
“It is deeply troubling that drug dealers consider the council’s over-50s housing blocks as a safe haven for their activities and to target the elderly – and the council needs to get on top of this which is happening in its own backyard.
“Instead of more council talking shops, let’s spend the money instead on getting some CCTV cameras up and making sure that council properties are secure from this threat.”
Another Conservative councillor Dee Simson, who speaks for her party on communities, said: “The council has the facilities for monitoring CCTV including a council CCTV control room which should be being utilised better.
“The council needs to make it a priority to provide a layer of security to the elderly in the city in the council-run over 50s housing blocks which are currently being targeted.
Councillor Barnett plans to take her proposal to the next meeting of the Housing Committee which is scheduled for Wednesday 23 June.
The council said: “We take the issue of cuckooing very seriously and work with the police to investigate any evidence of this behaviour.
“We are not aware of any evidence that ‘a lot of over-50s housing blocks up by the hospital and on the Ditchling Road have been targeted for cuckooing’.
“We are aware of concerns Councillor Barnett has raised in relation to two council housing blocks in the city. These blocks are for people of all ages, not specifically for over-50s.
“We have investigated these concerns and found no evidence of cuckooing.
“We would urge anyone with such evidence to phone Sussex Police on 101.”
But who will be monitoring these cameras? They will only be a deterrent if the culprits are aware that they are being scrutinised. And there should be video recording facilities attached, for the benefit of an police enquiry.
Council officers seemed to resent being asked to look at CCTV or even help the police to view it in my experience – when a home help in 2020 thought the bldg lobby a safe place for her bike for her 1/2 hour visit. The police told her they were waiting for BHCC to get back to them after they requested sight of CCTV. Never happened.
This money could have been used for affordable housing and nhs
Not for cameras
That is a fools errand as the NHS has to provide care for the drug scvm.
Anything that clears all druggies out, the better.
Councils spend a small fortune on security and entry doors on these places to keep undesirables out but the very people these entry doors are meant to keep out end up as anti-social tenants in them???