Council spying on own residents (From Oxford Mail)

Council spying on own residents

6:13pm Sunday 29th March 2009 in Didcot By Emily Allen

Residents last night criticised their “Big Brother” district council for using snooping powers to spy on people suspected of crimes like benefit fraud and flytipping.

Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed South Oxfordshire District Council has spied on, followed, eavesdropped, filmed or recorded people 19 times over the past five years.

A Liberal Democrat survey showed the council used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to investigate benefit fraud on nine occasions, theft five times, the illegal dumping of waste on four occasions, and a single breach of planning enforcement.

Of the 19 cases, just three led to successful prosecutions.

Didcot resident Tony Anchors, 59, of Drake Road, said Britain was turning into a big brother nation.

He said: “I don’t mind them using it to catch flytippers – they want catching – but as for the other surveillance, this country is turning into 1984.

“George Orwell would be turning in his grave. It’s worse than Russia.

“It is an invasion of people’s human rights.”

Stephen Beatty, 42, of Benson Lane, Crowmarsh, said: “It’s an abomination. It’s 1984 in a communist state. They’re just trying to take away our civil liberties.”

Tom McNeill, 27, of Ilges Lane, Cholsey, thought the Big Brother powers should only be used for more serious offences.

He added: “People are entitled to a level of privacy. What about members of the public who are being watched and who aren’t doing anything wrong?”

The survey did not provide responses from the rest of the county’s local authorities.

South Oxfordshire District Council defended its use of RIPA to combat crime, pointing out that a 2007 review by the Office of Surveillance Commissioners judged it to be “a very sparing user” of surveillance.

A council spokesman said: “We use our surveillance powers under RIPA only in exceptional circumstances. A number of these have resulted in successful prosecution.”

Opposition politicians warned that the surveillance powers were in danger of becoming a “snooper’s charter”.

Nationally, the Lib Dem survey found 180 councils had used surveillance powers 10,288 times in the last five years.

Lib Dem local government spokesman Julia Goldsworthy said: “This Government sees civil liberties as little more than a temporary inconvenience. Slowly but surely, freedoms have been eroded.

“Unless RIPA is reformed, it risks becoming a snoopers’ charter. Surveillance powers should only be used to investigate serious crimes and must require a magistrate’s warrant.”

The Home Office said the Office of the Surveillance Commissioner had already issued new guidance on how RIPA techniques should be used.

A spokesman said: “While many of the investigations that are carried out under RIPA are important — like protecting the public from dodgy traders, trapping fly tippers who dump tonnes of rubbish on an industrial scale across the countryside, or tackling the misery caused by noisy and disruptive neighbours — there are clearly cases where these powers should not be used.”