More CCTV cameras on the way in Cavan

A good Samaritan has offered to pay for the installation of new CCTV cameras in Cavan Town covering the Main street carparks and the bring bank section at Tesco “for the good of” the town.

The mystery benefactor offered to sponsor the cost of the cameras after they read an article in The Anglo-Celt in February outlining how it would cost €15,000 to extend the scheme in the town.
Ger Finn, Director of Services, Cavan County Council, was approached by the individual, who wishes to remain anonymous, in recent weeks. Mr Finn raised the matter with elected members of the Cavan-Belturbet Municipal District Authority last week, who subsequently approved the scheme. It’s hoped to install the new devices in the coming weeks.
Members had been told at their February Municipal District meeting that the council was considering extending CCTV in Cavan Town but that it was cost prohibitive and would have to come out of the existing budget.
But at their meeting in Blacklion’s Market House last Tuesday, members were informed that plans to extend part of the CCTV scheme would now take place, thanks to the generous and surprising intervention of this mysterious sponsor.

Roving camera
The offer was greeted with unanimous approval, with Mr Finn saying how the works would cover the installation of extra lighting in the Main Street carpark, a stationary CCTV camera covering the bring banks and a roving camera covering the carparks and approach roads.
All with be linked into the existing CCTV within the town, which is managed by the County Council and actively monitored from a bank of screens within the Cavan Garda Station.
Mr Finn told the Celt after the meeting had ended: “The sponsors are part contributing to the installation of lighting and two cameras, a stationary one at the bring bank and second movable camera, which can monitor the Main Street car park and its access road to the rear of Tesco and Dunne StorWes.
“It’s the first occasion in my memory that something like this has happened. It’s incredibly generous, it really is. It’s an amazing offer in the sense that this person read about it in the newspaper after our last meeting and approached me and said they’d be prepared, for the good of Cavan, to sponsor some CCTV,” Mr Finn said.

Major asset
Gardaí in Cavan and Monaghan have also welcomed the development.
Superintendent Jimmy Coen told The Anglo-Celt earlier this year that the CCTV system in Cavan Town is proving a major asset.
“In the investigation of crime in the Cavan Town area and, particularly in the Main Street, the cameras assist in the prevention and detection of crime and also in the prevention of detection of public order incidents and assaults,” he said.
Supt Coen also emphasised the value of the cameras in relation to detecting and deterring shop lifters, thefts from cars and following customers out of banks in Cavan.
The garda chief is on the record as saying he is in favour of having a CCTV system in every significant town.