A flagship community safety project introduced to crack down on vandalism and public disorder across Glasgow has been secretly scrapped.

The Glasgow Times can reveal that the city-wide mobile van CCTV scheme has been 'quietly retired' as part of budget cuts.

Along with helping to prevent and deter anti-social behaviour in city centre streets and outlying parts of Glasgow, the vehicles were also used to provide security at major events like the Commonwealth Games, football matches and music festivals like Trnsmt.

The Glasgow Times understands that the mobile CCTV vehicles were taken off the road due to ongoing mechanical failures and problems with the camera equipment. They were then not replaced due to 'budgetary constraints'.

This resulted in lease arrangements for the vans being terminated as part of a Glasgow City Council wide review into its fleet. An insider also told us that the CCTV vans would also have had to be upgraded to electric vehicles for the scheme to continue.

(Image: Gordon Terris)

We can also reveal that the decision was taken by council officers and only reported to the local authority's neighbourhood, regeneration and sustainability fleet board as opposed to being brought before elected members for discussion.

The programme, which operated under the Glasgow Community Safety Partnership between the local authority and the Scottish Police Authority, provided a mobile presence across each of Glasgow's wards.

The equipment inside the vehicles was considered state-of-the-art, capturing high-quality images that could be transmitted in real time to a nerve-centre in Glasgow where they were monitored by council staff and police.

The council's website also previously heralded the scheme, with a dedicated page saying how 420 CCTV cameras across the city were complimented by the vehicles "capable of recording and transmitting images from cameras situated on telescopic poles on their roofs."

Councillor Paul Carey BEM has hit out at the decision to scrap the security scheme, saying the vans played a key role combating fly-tipping in his Drumchapel and Anniesland ward.

Cllr Paul Carey BEM(Image: Colin Mearns)

He said: "The vehicles were deployed here when illegal dumping became a big problem a few years ago, and were hugely successful in bringing the issue under control.

"Across the city, councillors regularly spoke of the impact their presence had on anti-social behaviour. People would think twice about what they got up to if they thought there were going to be caught on camera by patrols, easily identified and taken to task.

"I am shocked to learn that the scheme has been scrapped, and even more shocked to find out that the decision to stop it wasn't brought to a committee for councillors to properly discuss whether this step should be taken. This should never have been quietly retired in this manner and I'll be asking questions as to why this was allowed to happen."

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At its peak 10 years ago, the service had 11 fully operational mobile vehicles and 87 dedicated staff at its disposal. By 2022, this number had dropped to just 24 officers, including temporary staff, with only one vehicle not blighted by mechanical issues.

We previously told how a senior union boss had hit out at the council's lack of commitment to the scheme - saying it was putting people at risk.

GMB representative Ross McArthur said public safety was being sacrificed because of the strain on the public purse.

A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council says the decision was taken to make best use of resources.

They added: "Three mobile CCTV vehicles came into our service as a legacy of the transfer of Community Safety Glasgow to the council in 2019.

"However, the vehicles were already in an aging state and proved to be in an unreliable condition before their use was discontinued.

"Use of the vehicles was also found to provide limited deterrence and there were practical issues with how this type of service could be delivered.

"Instead we now have 30 deployable CCTV columns that can be moved into areas where there are concerns about anti-social behaviour and these provide more sustained and effective monitoring in communities where issues have arisen.

"These 30 temporary columns provide flexibility to respond to specific community concerns within a system that sees Glasgow deploy the largest public space CCTV system of any local authority in the UK.

"The decision to discontinue the use of mobile CCTV vans was operational in nature and information was shared appropriately within the council."

Mobile CCTV vans used to tackle anti-social behaviour 'secretly scrapped'