Skip to main content

Bristol brings together support services to form major emergency control centre

A new multi-purpose centre has opened in Bristol to house the council’s Emergency Control Centre, Traffic Control Centre and Community Safety (CCTV) Control Rooms into a single facility for major emergencies. These teams provide public safety services that use 700 CCTV cameras around the city with a large part of the centre dedicated to managing the city’s traffic network and monitoring the flow of traffic around Bristol.
October 20, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
A new multi-purpose centre has opened in Bristol to house the council’s Emergency Control Centre, Traffic Control Centre and Community Safety (CCTV) Control Rooms into a single facility for major emergencies. These teams provide public safety services that use 700 CCTV cameras around the city with a large part of the centre dedicated to managing the city’s traffic network and monitoring its flow of traffic.

Staff from transport providers are now able to work with the council’s traffic management team to provide greater reliability in public transport services and more accurate real-time information about services.  

The centre monitors 200 junctions, manages almost 40 traffic and information signs, handles 46,500 welfare and telecare calls every month and has been built on a communication platform that links into the city’s high-speed fibre network.

Open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year; the centre provides traffic monitoring, set up and review of traffic signals, emergency response to telecare and assistive technology users, alarm and security monitoring, lone worker support and CCTV management.

Marvin Rees, mayor of Bristol, said: “This new centre represents an investment in the safety of citizens and getting the city moving. The challenges we face to beat congestion, support vulnerable people in their homes and secure safer streets require new approaches and new ways of working. By blending state of the art technology and a collaborative approach to sharing operations we’re taking a positive step towards meeting these challenges.”

Related Content

  • Councils in North East England receive funding to upgrade traffic management technology.
    October 27, 2017
    The UK Government has announced fund valued £3.64 million ($4.79 million) to upgrade the traffic management technology and improve journey times across the North East Combined Authority area (NECA). It will include upgrades to traffic signals on key regional routes with Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras, Variable Message Signs and integration with public transport data from Nexus. The Department of Transport paid £2.8 million ($3.6million) of the fund and the rest came from local authority contribu
  • Ito World manifesto calls on cities to embrace MaaS
    September 25, 2018
    Data and alternative transport can combat congestion, pollution and private car dependency in global cities, says Ito World. The UK transit data specialist has published a manifesto which calls on cities to embrace Mobility as a Service (MaaS) to ‘unlock’ their future potential. The MaaS Manifesto: smart data and accessing a city’s potential insists cities also need to have the right infrastructure and ensure the public and private sectors work with emerging players. Ito World says city authorities u
  • Data can help us mind the transportation gender gap
    April 18, 2023
    A gendered perspective in public transport is essential if we are to achieve equality, suggest Emma Chapman and Naomi Grant of WhereIsMyTransport 
  • Roadflow keeps Bristol’s traffic moving
    March 5, 2013
    Following the successful deployment of two Roadflow mobile bus lane enforcement systems, Bristol City Council in the UK has awarded technology specialist SEA (a Cohort plc company) a new Roadflow contract to install up to ten re-deployable Flexi bus lane enforcement systems in the city over the next three years. According to SEA, local bus operators, whose timetables are adversely affected by traffic congestion on city centre bus routes, have welcomed the use of Roadflow’s cutting edge technology, as it has