They Like to Watch: CCTV Addicts

The scheme that gave residents of Shoreditch links to local CCTV cameras through their TV sets had better viewing figures than Channel 4's Big Brother, according to an internal report by the local authority's rejuvenation body.

The Register has learned how residents took to the Shoreditch Digital Bridge scheme in order to scan for and report anti-social behaviour. Yet the over-arching aim of the project was to bridge the digital divide and improve take-up of online public services by giving TV-internet access to people in poor areas.

According to preliminary results of the Shoreditch pilot - due to be published in January - linking people's living-room television sets to local CCTV cameras had attracted viewing figures with an "equivalent reach of prime time, week-day broadcast programming".

Residents of one of the East-End’s most deprived housing estates are set to lead one of the most innovative broadband expansions in Europe, as the Shoreditch Digital Bridge goes on line early in 2006.

The project will feature a 'Community Safety Channel' which will allow residents to monitor estate CCTV cameras from their own living rooms, view a ‘Usual Suspects’ ASBO line up, and receive live community safety alerts.

The SDB has been developed by government funded community association The Shoreditch Trust, and will be delivered in partnership with Video Networks Ltd, provider of Homechoice, the digital home network.

The report said: "Focus group feedback indicates the CCTV is helping address fear of crime and... generating major new community vigilance resource."

Though they may not have signed up for access to the wider internet, the scheme is reported to have got a "majority" of residents into the habit of using the internet on a daily basis.

The Shoreditch pilot was closed in June, but phase two of the scheme is being announced in January and the model is being promoted to councils nationwide.