THE junction of New Road and Castle Road is Kidderminster's hot spot for assaults and incidents of anti-social behaviour late at night, analysis of the town's CCTV coverage has shown.
Wyre Forest district councillors had requested a breakdown of incidents caught on camera between 8pm and 3am since the launch of the CCTV system in February last year and last month.
The findings were due to be reported to the council's environment and economic regeneration policy and scrutiny panel last night.
Out of 367 incidents during those hours, 102 were anti-social behaviour and 65 were assaults.
Sixty-six arrests of one or more people were made as a result of the overall number of incidents.
The CCTV camera monitoring the junction of New Road and Castle Road captured 28 assaults and 58 cases of anti-social behaviour.
Next highest number of incidents took place at the junction of Vicar Street and Exchange Street, with 15 assaults and 24 instances of anti-social behaviour.
New Road had 13 assaults and 12 anti-social behaviour cases.
The rest of the incidents were spotted on the remaining cameras at the junctions of Worcester Street and Marlborough Street, Worcester Street and High Street, Coventry Street and Blackwell Street, as well as the one at Bromsgrove Street car park.
Councillors asked for the latest statistics to give them an idea how such incidents impacted on Kidderminster's evening economy.
The same panel had been given a progress report on the CCTV scheme during its first year of operation when it met last month. In all, 548 incidents were caught by the cameras, which cost £130,000 to buy and install.
The council is committed to providing £25,000 a year to pay for the on-going use of the cameras, which are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week at Bromsgrove District Council's CCTV monitoring station.
The station has direct communication links with West Mercia Constabulary's call monitoring centre.
Locations for the scheme's seven cameras were selected to provide coverage of key evening economy areas and core retail areas.
Kidderminster's Swan Centre, Rowland Hill Centre and Weavers Wharf all operate their own in-house CCTV systems.
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