THE NSW Police Force has charged Shoalhaven City Council $12,000 to lease space on its Nowra communications tower as part of the operation of the CBD CCTV project.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This has been revealed in correspondence to councillors detailing the operating and legal costs of the system from director of corporate and community services Craig Milburn.
According to Mr Milburn, the police lease the tower themselves and pass on the leasing costs for the CCTV wireless connection to council.
The report showed that in 2008-2009, the operating costs of the system were $5340; in 2009-2010, $7564; in 2010-2011, $2674; in 2011-2012, $33,700; 2012-2013, $39,234; and from July 1, 2013 to December 24, 2013, $11,796.
The total operating cost since the cameras were installed was $100,311, of which $84,860 related to maintenance, repairs and retrieval, while $12,071 was for the lease of the police communications tower and $598 was for line rental.
That was significantly less than the total of $117,262 in legal costs incurred while fighting a case brought by then local resident Adam Bonner in the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. However, because the installation of the system came in under budget, $19,000 from the original federal grant of $150,000 was contributed to the legal costs.