Disclaimer: Wealden District Council shares its own experience of using the product and does not endorse Verkada or recommend it over any other supplier.
Key Metrics
Hours → 30 minutes or less: Investigation time
No routine IT maintenance required: Automatic software and firmware updates reduce manual upkeep
3-week deployment: Time to implement
Background
Located in East Sussex, Wealden District Council serves approximately 170,000 residents across a diverse portfolio of offices, public buildings, and community assets.
As a Car Parking & Facilities Manager, Tina Ford has spent more than a decade overseeing the council's commercial buildings and parking facilities. With responsibility for security across multiple sites and potential local government reorganisation on the horizon, the council wanted a platform that would simplify operations today while providing the flexibility to support future growth.
The Challenge: Replacing a legacy CCTV system with a simpler, more scalable approach
Before deploying Verkada, the council relied on an on-premise CCTV system that had become increasingly difficult to manage.
"The quality just wasn't good enough," explained Tina. "Trying to download footage could be really difficult."
Poor image quality made investigations harder, while retrieving footage from multiple locations was a slow, manual process. Because the system depended on on-premise infrastructure, ongoing maintenance also required greater involvement from IT than Tina wanted for day-to-day security operations.
When evaluating new solutions, the council focused on three priorities: centralised management, ease of use, and a cloud-managed platform that could eliminate the need to maintain local servers. Following a competitive procurement process, Verkada stood out for its simplicity and unified approach.
The Solution: A unified deployment across priority council sites
The council began deploying Verkada across several key facilities.
Today, Verkada cameras provide high-quality visibility, while Verkada Access Control helps the facilities team manage entry for employees and contractors.
Authorised staff use viewing stations to monitor activity and report issues as they arise. Designated staff also use live camera feeds as part of their responsibility for managing council buildings.
For Tina, one of the biggest advantages is the ability to securely access the system remotely through the Verkada Command app.
"If I'm away from site, I can still see what's happening," she said.
The Partnership: A collaborative implementation
The deployment was supported by two long-standing technology partners.
Softcat helped the council navigate public-sector procurement requirements, ensuring the project aligned with government purchasing frameworks.
Installation was led by JBrand, whose team conducted site surveys and advised on the most appropriate hardware. The complete installation was finished in approximately three weeks.
"JBrand was fantastic," said Tina. "Friendly, helpful, and always on hand to help."
The Impact
Faster investigations with clearer evidence
Since deploying Verkada, the council has reduced the time required to investigate security incidents. What previously could take hours can now typically be resolved in 30 minutes or less, with many investigations taking only a few minutes.
During one incident, unauthorised access occurred on council property. Tina's team quickly located the relevant footage and provided it to local police. "They commented on how good the quality of the footage was," she said.
When exporting video evidence, the team also uses Verkada's face blur feature to obscure individuals who are unrelated to an incident, helping protect their privacy while still sharing usable evidence.
Greater confidence in access control
Verkada's cloud-managed access control has also given Tina confidence that building permissions can be updated quickly whenever circumstances change.
To test the system's responsiveness, she revoked an employee’s building access just as she arrived at the council offices. "By the time she walked from the car park to the front door, she couldn't get in," Tina recalled.
The exercise demonstrated how quickly access changes take effect, providing reassurance that the council can rapidly adjust permissions whenever needed.
Security without the IT burden
For Tina, one of Verkada's biggest benefits is how independently her team can manage the system. Because cameras and access control are managed through Verkada's cloud platform, routine administration no longer requires ongoing involvement from the council's IT department.
Software and firmware updates are delivered automatically over the air, removing the need for the council to manually maintain local servers or update devices individually. The facilities team can review footage, manage access permissions, and oversee day-to-day operations themselves.
Combined with responsive support from both Verkada and JBrand, the result is a system that Tina says simply works.
"We don't have to worry about it."
Looking ahead
Following the success of the initial deployment, Wealden District Council is considering a controlled expansion of the Verkada system.
As the council prepares for future growth and organisational change, Tina is confident that Verkada provides a security platform capable of supporting both today's operations and tomorrow's needs.