Decades-long CCTV dispute with council rumbles on

A victim of a burglary whose home contents insurance was invalidated when council-run CCTV was found to be out of order is taking his compensation claim into a 19th year.

Anthony Burton has been asking Hackney Council to pay him £2,000 to cover his losses since 2007.

The Burton family home, on the Regent Estate in South Hackney, was broken into and a thief took cash, a television set, a PlayStation and other family possessions. The burglar has never been caught.

As leaseholders, the Burtons were paying service charges to their landlord, Hackney Council, which helped fund a network of surveillance cameras installed across the estate.

At least one camera directly overlooked the back door where the thief had entered, and the communal driveway where their car was parked during the break-in.

None of the cameras was working at the time of the home invasion, the family later found.

Mr Burton believes Hackney Council is liable since it charged him for the CCTV service.

Since then, he has been on a nearly two-decade mission to get the council to reimburse him.

Mr Burton told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had been told by various council staff ever since the burglary that he would be reimbursed for the losses due to the lack of CCTV - but has still not received anything.

The Burtons took legal advice, but solicitors said although they had a case, it would not be worth it financially since the claim of £2,200 was less than the costs would have been.

At one point, Mr Burton decided to stop paying his service charges and council tax until he could recoup his losses, but the council took him to court. He later agreed to pay £1,800 arrears, plus £200 in court costs.

Conservative councillor Simche Steinberger, who has been involved with the case for years, said the dispute should "go into the Guinness Book of Records" for how long it's been going on, with so many councillors and so many officers involved.

Mr Burton told the LDRS: "Even if tomorrow [the council] came round and said 'OK, we're paying' - if you assess it now, the amount is probably three or four times the value.

"It's a disgrace – how many more people have been affected by this?"

The council said it sympathised with Mr Burton and had been in regular contact with him.

"Following our investigations, we have no record promising to reimburse service charges, as Mr Burton suggested.

"We now consider this matter closed. If Mr Burton remains unhappy with this outcome, he should seek independent legal advice."

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