Project of the Year Awards: Westminster City Council

Westminster home to some of London's best-known landmarks and districts, including the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Soho.

Westminster City Council provides services to a residential community of 230,000 people, with tourists and commuters swelling the population to 1.1 million on the average weekday.

But as the centre of London's nightlife, Westminster also faces high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.

A wireless CCTV project was initiated to help target street crime, but the system is set to become a citywide project to support wireless delivery of local government services.

What were the business objectives of the project?

'The concept of the wireless city is potentially one of the most exciting developments in Westminster's history,' says councillor Simon Milton, leader of Westminster City Council.

'It will allow us to offer opportunity to our residents through community education schemes on our housing estates and integrated social service provision across the city.'

Milton says CCTV cameras linked to wireless access points will help the council reduce crime by monitoring Westminster streets.

'It will also help us maintain low taxes through the savings that the scheme can offer,' says Milton.

If the initial project is successful, Westminster plans to use the CCTV-embedded wireless access points to provide council information to its 1,500 street-based staff, such as traffic wardens, environmental health inspectors and trading standards officers.

What were the key milestones in the implementation?

The wireless CCTV installation began as a three-month proof of concept project in December 2002, with installation of a camera in Soho Square in April 2003.

By May this year, Westminster increased the number of cameras to four and worked with Cisco to create a web-based management system, allowing the cameras to be controlled and viewed by a remote mobile response unit.

The council has now received £500,000 funding from the government and plans to roll out 33 additional cameras across the borough.

The citywide wireless network will also be used for elearning in schools and provide classes to families for whom English is not the first language, says Peter Rogers, chief executive of Westminster City Council.

'WiFi is being used a lot in business centres, we could do this on council estates for learning,' he says.

What technology was used?

Westminster worked with Cisco Systems to create the wireless networks and the web-based remote monitoring system.

Council officers were able to access the network in the pilot area, using Intel Centrino wireless laptops and handheld devices. These helped employees such as environmental health officers checking on sound levels in clubs and bars in the area.

Telindus helped integrate the systems and provided the CCTV equipment, with SkyNet Systems helping Cisco develop the wireless network.

How did you manage the business change and people issues involved?

Simon Norbury, head of IT at Westminster City Council, says that a previous change management programme encountered initial resistance, so the council decided to take a different approach when implementing wireless CCTV.

'We said here is some technology that we know will work, but first we decided to get it up and running and then ask people what other benefits it could bring,' he says.

'Once we demonstrated the technology we were inundated with requests to use it, so we have had to prioritise parking, licensing and housing at this stage.'

What results were achieved?

Although still in the early stages, the council says the project is already achieving considerable results.

'It is delivering benefits to the council and the police in our fight against drug crime in central London - arrests have been made,' says Milton.

Wireless CCTV has cut installation and cabling costs by £30,000 per camera, so CCTV can be set up in new areas in an hour to help cut down on prostitution, drug dealing and anti-social behaviour.

'We also predict that each mobile worker will save seven hours of work each week from not having to go back to the office to re-enter information,' says Norbury.

Illegal parking, fly-posting and rubbish dumping is also being combated, with the council receiving further funds from levying fines.

What were the lessons learnt?

'It taught us that sometimes it's good to be innovative,' says Norbury.

'No one had done this before but we knew that this was the right approach and we went with it.'

Norbury says demonstrating the technology helped achieve support for the project and provided a way for different departments to visualise potential applications.

'When you can demonstrate its power that's when you get real engagement and buy-in,' he says.

The council's experience from the wireless city project have also shown that other local authorities can benefit from the technology, says Norbury.

'We want to be able to advise other councils on how they can do this,' he says.

What were the business benefits and return on investment?

Norbury says the project is likely to pay for itself within two years, by bringing cost savings in service delivery and also by enabling the council to launch new initiatives, such as remote teaching.

Rogers predicts that cheaper wireless CCTV will enable about 10 times as many installations.

How do you plan to build on the project further?

Norbury says the next step is for the council to roll out the wireless network across the whole of the City of Westminster.

The council says it is considering extending the wireless network to Westminster businesses and even to the public.

Other spin-offs are being investigated, such as wireless parking meters that can accept credit card payments, and telemetry to inform the council when a lamp post has stopped working.

'It's one of the biggest things that can transform local government from a service delivery perspective,' says Norbury.

Computing says:

Wireless technology is being adopted by many public and private sector industries to achieve greater productivity from its workforce in the field.

The technology is reducing time wasted travelling and is automating many processes, not to mention providing staff with invaluable real-time information that enables them to make key decisions.

But what separates Westminster City Council's initiative from other wireless networking projects is the way it has cut street crime, while creating an infrastructure that supports a wide range of other local authority services.

Project at a glance

*Westminster City Council wanted to create a 'wireless city' using Cisco WiFi CCTV cameras to cut down on street crime, while providing a network that allows council workers to access intranets and work applications

*The trial first began in December 2002 in Soho Square, leading to immediate arrests and exposing illegal parking, fly-posting and rubbish dumping

*Council workers such as environmental health officers are using the WiFi network to monitor excessive noise levels using Intel handheld computers

*Costs have been cut from £36,000 to £6,000 per camera allowing 10 times as many CCTV installations

*Success has led to a further £500,000 funding from central government, meaning the roll-out of 33 more cameras

*Westminster City Council now plans to use the networks for further projects such as elearning in housing estates and for business use