Council tenants could be entitled to a refund if CCTV cameras near their homes have been broken for more than three months. 

According to a Havering Council report, six in ten (61 per cent) of the borough’s 283 CCTV cameras are “increasingly failing”, with some tenants paying service charges for cameras that are “no longer working”. 

The council’s head of assurance Jeremy Welburn told an audit committee meeting on January 24 that some of the borough’s cameras are 20 years old.

His audit of the housing service charges to tenants found that cameras are “failing on a regular basis” and not being repaired fast enough. 

Despite this, director of housing Patrick Odling-Smee said it would be “expensive” to write to tenants informing them about the refunds for faulty cameras. 

Havering Council’s “roll out” of a £5 million plan to upgrade its CCTV is still not complete after almost two years.

In October last year, assistant director of civil protection Julie Chandler claimed a project manager was “starting soon”. 

But last March, Cllr Jane Keane and Hope Mendy, who at the time were the Labour candidates for the St Albans ward, revealed that only two temporary CCTV cameras had been installed since the project was announced. 

At the time, Ms Mendy told the Recorder: “Given Havering Council’s 2021 budget commitment of investing £5m in CCTV, it's appalling that only two new

CCTV cameras have been installed across the whole borough by the council since March 2021.” 

The council has blamed delays on “the pandemic and the restrictions” but it remains unclear how much progress has been made since restrictions have been lifted. 

Cllr Keane said she had concerns that residents in “very needy areas of the borough” do not currently have working CCTV coverage.

The housing director said the new administration has decided to cancel all CCTV service charges from April this year, as tenants who live in crime-affected areas that need cameras should not have to pay more. 

He also said getting an exact list of which cameras are not working is “one of the challenges” facing the house team, as CCTV is managed by a different council department. 

A report on service charges is due to go before cabinet next month.

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