Planning permission has been granted by councillors for six new CCTV cameras which have been installed along the route of the ‘Black Path’ cycle and pedestrian route between South Bank and Normanby.

The equipment, which is costing more than £40,000, has been fully funded with a grant from the organisation Sustrans and it is hoped they will help deter crime and anti-social behaviour. The four cameras are six feet high and attached to vandal resistant columns and two more eight foot high with anti-climb guards also being incorporated.

A two mile section of the Black Path between Harcourt Road, South Bank and Ormesby High Street was subject to improvements carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Council, which were completed in the autumn of 2023. This followed the award of £655,000 the previous year from Sustrans, a charity which is responsible for the National Cycle Network and administers funding from the Department of Transport, aimed at providing a safer and more accessible route.

Improvements included a new, widened sealed tarmac surface, embedded ‘solar eye’ lighting, the clearing of overgrown vegetation to make the area feel brighter and less enclosed, and replacing restrictor barriers with chicanes compliant with cycle and active travel infrastructure guidance issued to local authorities.

Two comments were received by the council in respect of the CCTV scheme, which described a loss of privacy and labelled the cameras “large ugly towers”. A concern was also raised about the impact on property values of neighbouring homes.

A planning officer’s report for members of the council’s regulatory committee said the camera columns would not have any overbearing impacts on residents’ homes and they were all located on a public footpath. A meeting heard Cleveland Police would have access to the cameras if required, but they would be monitored by the council.

A briefing document from the firm AkinsRéalis, which was commissioned by the council to carry out the design work required, said the Black Path was a “known route for some individuals involved with criminal activity”. Installing new CCTV would allow the council to monitor the cycle path and deter anti-social behaviour, it said.

The once entirely cinder-covered Black Path was in years gone by regularly used by steel workers commuting between home and their shifts and is now part of the designated National Cycle Network Route 1, along with the Teesdale Way and England Coast Path routes.

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