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

  • Passport to invest $5m in updating mobility platform
    September 24, 2018
    Passport is to spend $5m in upgrading its mobility platform to help cities manage parking, dockless scooter and bike services and rideshare services. The company says the solution will allow cities to connect technologies introduced in the future such as autonomous vehicles. Called Passport Platform, the solution was developed to help clients manage their curbside assets and create an environment which can handle and encourage new modes of transportation. Bob Youakim, Passport CEO, says the device h
  • NGMN calls on EC to rethink connected car technology
    December 12, 2018
    An organisation representing telecoms network operators has warned European lawmakers that their vision for the development of cooperative ITS (C-ITS) risks being too narrow. In a letter to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the board of the NGMN Alliance highlights a key piece of EC legislation which will determine the technologies used for connected vehicles – and urges the inclusion of cellular-V2X (C-V2X) on the list. “Despite the EC’s stated commitment to technology neutrality, we
  • Small toll agency adopts big city thinking
    December 5, 2014
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at a novel option for new toll road authorities. While somewhat politically controversial, outsourcing has gained traction in the business world as a model worth investigating for its efficiency and cost saving benefits. Lean start-ups tend to employ independent contractors instead of full-time employees in an effort to remain flexible and avoid costs associated with pensions, retirement places, health insurance, office space and benefit packages.
  • Monitoring during construction reveals benefits of new expressway
    June 6, 2014
    David Crawford reports on how the authorities in New Zealand are using Bluetooth technology to monitor the effects of a new expressway as it is being constructed. New Zealand Highway Agency (NZHA) is using Bluetooth-based vehicle detection to assess the impact of its biggest road building project as the various sections are completed. The large-scale deployment of a Bluetooth-based vehicle detection system is making substantial contributions to traffic data needs in progressing the new Waikato Expressway, a