MORE than 400 arrests were made across Bridgwater and Burnham last year thanks to Sedgemoor District Council’s CCTV team.

The team dealt with a total of 1,418 incidents in 2014, resulting in 439 arrests according to council figures.

It monitors 147 CCTV cameras in addition to a number of dedicated Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras across Sedgemoor including 45 cameras in Bridgwater, ten within Burnham.

The small team also monitors cameras in the two neighbouring authorities of Taunton Deane and South Somerset totalling 54 cameras across Taunton, 6 within Wellington and 25 in Yeovil.

Barry Donbavand, Sedgemoor’s CCTV manager, said: “We have had another busy year in the CCTV team and continue to work closely with Avon and Somerset Police and our local authority partners to get the best results and make the areas we monitor as safe as possible.”

In total the CCTV department monitored 3,659 live incidents last year resulting in 1,213 people being arrested.

The figures do not include incidents or arrest figures for crimes where CCTV footage was used in post-incident investigations by the police, meaning the system played a part in many more actual arrests.

The CCTV control room is staffed by a team of nine who make sure the cameras are manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

As well as monitoring crime and antisocial behaviour, the team also took 2,350 out-of-hours emergency calls from the public including 1,481 calls for Homes in Sedgemoor regarding emergency repairs, 361 calls regarding lost or stray dogs, 277 incidents of anti-social behaviour, 19 highways concerns, 97 street cleanliness concerns and 115 enquiries about flooding or pumping stations.