Winton’s CCTV Cost Balloons To $130k

Tuesday, 18 February 2025, 10:18 pm
Article: Matthew Rosenberg - Local Democracy Reporter

A much-debated CCTV project in small-town Southland has hit a speed bump amid a budget blow out.
Upgrades to Winton’s camera network have been a point of contention ever since the Oreti Community Board voted them down in June 2024 — a move which went against both community and police opinion.

But in August 2024, a working group was created to explore the possibility of progressing the project, so long as Southland District Council could provide extra information on particular issues.

On Monday, the community board discussed two reports prepared by council staff on privacy, scope and costing.

The new information showed the cost of installing up to six cameras had ballooned to as much as $130,000 plus GST, a significant jump on a 2024 estimate of $44,000 plus GST.

A major factor was that the earlier estimate did not include all-of-life costs such as signage, consent, new poles and power.

Former board chair and current member Colin Smith said the newly proposed budget was a large reason why a decision wasn't reached on Monday.

“There wasn’t enough detail in it for all of us.

"I looked at it and I thought ‘well there’s a lot of money to be saved here’.”

Smith said the working group also hoped to speak with Invercargill City Council about the CCTV cameras it had recently installed.

Regardless, he felt they had made good progress with talks of a follow-up meeting in March.

“Everyone’s sort of in agreement that we have to get on with it, come to a decision.”

Discussions about replacing the current CCTV have been ongoing since the 2019 - 2022 triennia, the council said.

The proposed changes include replacing four existing cameras which are now more than 10 years old and installing two new cameras at the northern and southern entrances to the town.

Prior to the board voting down the CCTV upgrades in June 2024, it passed a resolution to remove the project from the long-term plan in December 2023.

An August 2024 community meeting was attended by more than 200 people supporting the project.
The $130,000 price tag was based on an independent cost estimate from an Invercargill quantity surveyor, while a $100,000 option was also a possibility but meant some options would be provisional.

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