Glasgow Council has approved the development of a new joint operations centre for the city’s traffic management and CCTV functions.

Phase one funding has been given the go-ahead, with the council’s executive committee voting yesterday to approve the motion.

Traffcom, the city’s centre for monitoring traffic and managing traffic signals, is currently located in Elmbank Street.

CCTV services are operated by Glasgow Community & Safety Services (GCSS) at the new Eastgate headquarters, which opened in August.

The Council says both services currently operate on technology bases that are out of date and fail to keep up with the demands, capacities, resilience and flexibility of digital systems.

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Now, a full fit-out of Eastgate is being planned, which will link it to other sites at Blochairn and Elmbank Street.

The project will involve staff relocation, the refreshing of existing systems and the improvement of disaster recovery arrangements.

The first phase will cost about £5.3m.

Phase two will upgrade the CCTV and traffic management systems and migrate the Centrally Integrated Traffic Control system (CITRAC).

Jim Coleman, executive member of Land & Environmental Services for Glasgow City Council, said: "Maintaining the status quo with the existing technology for Traffcom and CCTV is not considered a realistic option.

"There are significant benefits basing both services at a single operations centre at Eastgate. This will provide all the current functions of Traffcom and CCTV while substantially reducing both estimated capital and ongoing revenue costs.

"It will give the city a single base allowing us to manage and co-ordinate all of these critical functions."

(IT)