‘Big Brother’ council photographing people’s bins
Wednesday 28th September 2011, 11:30AM BST.
Telford & Wrekin Council was today accused of acting like ‘Big Brother’ after it was revealed bosses are sending photographers out with binmen to take pictures.
Council chiefs say by taking photos of where bins are collected, it will allow them to offer an improved service, especially when customers report problems with bin collections.
But Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard said he had been contacted by residents worried the photographers were taking pictures of their homes and private property. He claimed his constituents had not been told it would be happening, or why.
He said: “Many residents throughout the borough will be alarmed to think that their privacy is potentially being breached in such a way and without any prior warning or consultation.
“This smacks of big brother and intrusion.”
Telford & Wrekin Services, which handles collections for the council, said it was not taking pictures of houses.
Shaun Davies, cabinet member for environment, co-operative council and partnerships, said: “The project involves taking GPS logging, and taking a photograph of the location where each bin is collected, for example the end of a private driveway, by a crossroads, or near a bus stop.
“It does not include taking photographs of individual homes. Due to current information held about rural collections, when customers have issues with a bin collection it has proved difficult to pinpoint those issues. This exercise will lead to improved records.”
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As I understand it, there is no law forbidding photography in a public place.
End of…
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Possibly not , but the public have a right to be told why people are taking pictures of their property etc. A guy pulled up outside our house and photographed it and four others why?? he just drove off when i went to confront him . Although he was possibly on official business for the council etc/ or i have been told it is to do with the route of the pylons etc common decency would request that he knocks on the four doors before he takes pictures , how many people waste police time by contacting and reporting suspicious behavior.
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Technically, the bins belong to the Council not the householder. The Council is photographing it’s own property. There are laws regarding the blocking of public thoroughfares and if bins have been put out inappropriately then evidence is required. It is also an offence to put trade waste in with domestic refuse. Again photographic evidence would be required.
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as i understand it taking a photo of private property from a public foot path can be deemed as trespass
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As I understand it (through following the Amateur Photographer Rights Watch campaign avidly for the last few years in my weekly issue of AP) it can’t, although it is possible that other laws could be brought into play depending on the intent of the photographer, e.g. someone using a telephoto lens to isolate a single window with the intent of photographing the interior of a property would probably be on shaky ground.
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a photographer can photograph anything from a public place as long as it is for a personnal collection, how it is for council or other use, i’m not sure.
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I bet the photos are wheelie rubbish.
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I’ve bin expecting a joke like that!
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If the opportunity’s there I don’t like to refuse.
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I detritus-ee if I could think of any more rubbish related puns but I can’t!
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Here’s a tip: skip the bad jokes.
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If it’s for the reason they state it’s fine by me – any chance they could take some photos of the flytipping lowlife scum while they’re at it – for use as evidence in court?
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Does that mean the photos are subject to an FOI?
Surely someone can just ask them for all the photos taken?
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there maybe a cross over of legislation here and it might be the data protection act is in force here, just like asking for your image from a cctv camera.
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The photographs are evidential. The have been taken in the investigation of potential criminal offences. They are not subject to the
Data Protection Act under the prevention of crime exemption. As evidence, they are confidential until public presentation in court. Freedom of information laws therefore do not apply as the general public has no right to disclosure until legal process occurs.
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‘The photographs are evidential. The have been taken in the investigation of potential criminal offences’
I would love to know where you got that tosh from as it doesn’t state that once in the article…
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When you say criminal offenses (ph7) i assume you mean that people are leaving the bins on a public path causing them to step onto a road etc ?
If this is your case and this is a public criminal offence please state this !! By the way are you a member of the council ,a police officer or someone to do with law ? if this is also the case congratulations you have just publically announced that the council or the people (working on behalf of the council) representing them have just all commited a serious criminal offence and therefore should all be charged as such ! i for one place my bins at the end of my (private) drive when i go to bring them back onto my property i have to do so from around the corner on the path (where the bin men have left them)so does that mean i am at fault ? because as you rightly stated the bins belong to the council as do the bin men so it’s the council workers leaving council property on a public path. So any photo evidence is actually being used against themselves !!! they have no reason to take pictures of the front of properties as they can take a picture from an angle that shows it is a criminal offence with the path etc in the fore/background and write on the back which property it belongs to.
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rubbish idea …
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lol
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they will have a shock if they come to my house doing it as i will jump out of the bin starkers.take a pic of that….
also on to the point geuss just another job for the boys really..
jokers
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Its become like a Sharia state and they are the Talibin
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Hey damo, watch out what you do with your bin then or you might get something personal amputated…..
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Go and spend a couple of weeks in Afghan
i bet you won’t be so quick to make silly comments then.
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Your joking ?
you think Osama “Bin” Laden ordered them to photograph it (from the grave)
crazy
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Go and spend acouple of weeks in Afghan.
bet you won’t be so quick to make silly
comments then.
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The Daily Mail will have a field day with this, council, waste and spying all in one, if only it was an immigrant doing the photography this would be the perfect story
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I think you’ll find that to really tick every box in the Daily Mail’s bigotry checklist they’d also need to be claiming some sort of benefit and probably be gay as well…
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Not to mention lowering house prices…
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Thank god I live in Shrewsbury, no such thing happens here,in this English town.Daily Mail is a great paper, tells the true stories that the less educated don’t want to know.
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I think you’ll find Telford is also an English town.
It’s also further away from the Welsh border and so probably less likely to encounter what you might call ‘immigration’ from Wales, eh Mr Jones.
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John,
If I weren’t an atheist, I’d thank god you live in Shrewsbury too…
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Yes, with a name like Jones you are correct. Where did I say that Telford was not a English town? Don’t be racist.
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On the contrary, I was merely making the point that your need to emphasise Shrewsbury as an ‘English town’ was unnecessary and carried an equivalent, divisive tone.
Even those of us ‘less educated’ folk are well aware of the placement of our county town.
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better if it was a royal family member who ordered the immigrant to go and take the photo and at the bequest of the EU, that would make it a real daily mail story
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Wrong !! If an immigrant was taking the photographs, publication would trigger the usual flood of whinging from the ethnic minorities.So it wouldn’t get published.
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“Council chiefs say by taking photos of where bins are collected, it will allow them to offer an improved service, especially when customers report problems with bin collections.”
Make no mistake about it, this is not why they’re taking photographs of your bins.
Expect to eventually hear news of plans by T&W to fine you for having your bin lid not properly down. This isn’t about quality of service, it’s about robbing you of more hard-earned money whilst providing the same sub-standard service they’ve been able to get away with so far…
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I personally have no problem with this as I use my bins and boxes correctly. On the whole I think we are provided with a perfectly adequate service and it’s really not that hard to clean your recyclables in the old dishwater after washing up, and then to put them in the right box/bag.
If you can think of a better way of doing things you should send a suggestion in to the Council instead of moaning about it on here.
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These officials have got to justify their high salaries and existance.
Somebody has spent hours maybe even days thinking of the idea of taking Photographs of wheelie bins.
He or she might even get a nice bonus for thinking up such a brilliant idea.
Now you know where your council tax goes. Not on an efficient customer friendly collection service, thats for sure
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Brian,
Do you have details of the salary these photographers are receiving? Do you have a full job description for their roles?
I just wondered, since there are many people looking for work at present, and you’re clearly an expert on what such people get paid and what they do on a daily basis to justify their ‘existance’ (sic).
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This is a common practice to improve customer service. Photographs tied in to on-board computing improves productivity and reduces down time.
With all the whining about councils wasting money, everyone should be happy about this initiative. Except they are adding to their costs by sending along a photographer to snap the pics.
The driver can take them, it doesn’t need to be David Bailey.
And, what do all you people have to hide? Benefits cheats, meth labs,….?
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Nothing to hide at all, it is called protecting ones privacy , however if your the type that enjoys show and tell and the guy at work who only ever talks about himself then i suppose you would embrace such invasions.
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They can photograph my bin any time, all they will see is bin with the lid closed.
If they want to look inside it they will not
find anything that should not be there,IE no recyclables no industrial waste etc.
Use your bin as intended and don’t be unreasonable and you wont have a problem.
Although when i say bin i have noticed some
people have two or three, and still pay the same council tax as everyone else?
I cannot remember google asking permission to
photograph my house.
Many houses on google street view have bins outside so why all the fuss about photographing bins?
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sorry but do the shropshier star have permission from the council to use that photo of bins on this page even?
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FOI them to get the information / images and then sue them for breaching human rights – they are always imposing on us, harming our civil liberties like with cctv and stuff too
Look what happens when you get a Labour council – the loony left want to enforce rules and set targets, its in their nature, oh yes you mark my words I tell you now, the facist stasi police are alive and well in telford – they are like communists those socialist spies
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You what??
Yeah right on, CCTV and stuff and all that and everyfin. So the fascist police are like those communists eh?
Searing political insight Blue Boy, excellent.
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Go easy on the lad Drone – those communist fascist socialist nazis down at the clinic have been altering his medication again….he spent all last night licking the TV screen.
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Let them try and photograph mine if they dare, i would shoot all intruders for tresspass and i know im safe for it, cuz the new government now supports this concept. My bin, my house, my rules, get off my land i reckon OR ELSE
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If the bin is a wheelie bin supplied by the Council, it remains Council property, not the property of the householder. The public thoroughfare e.g. the pavement cannot be construed to be your property.
Legally, rubbish can be your property until collected, however, Council officials have permission in law to inspect rubbish to make sure offences are not being committed e.g. disposal of waste chemicals and other materials injurious to the environment or health, placing trade waste in domestic refuse, placing commercial animal bi-products etc in domestic refuse, blocking the public thoroughfare etc.
I know, in the past I’ve enforced all of this.
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Here we go, they’ll be fining people for leaving their bin in the wrong place now!
Another cash raising con
Maybe I should have took photos when the dustcart lorry demolished the wall around our communal bin area!
Is this really what I pay council tax for? To pay someone to take pretty pictures?
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Leave bins in the right places then!
It really isn’t that difficult.
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Reply to Sparky.No Google didnt ask permission to photograph our property.They couldnt come down the private drive to my house so they used their high mounted masts to photograph my back garden over a 6ft wall.ou can make them delete it from their site.
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Oh dear, I shouldn’t read these threads. So many people frothing over their keyboards, it would be sad if it wasn’t funny. At least it keeps a bunch of you off the streets, which must be a good thing.
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I agree, surely there are more important things in life to worry about than someone taking a photo of your bin. Get over it!
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and the problem is ?
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something to use their new I Pads for ?
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jobs for the boys hey? can i have a job on 50k a year photographing pot holes please.
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no, I cannot think of a single road engineer in local government employment who takes home £50,000 a year, try around £15,000
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No sorry Zak you cant, I suspect you are not qualified for the job and besides you would have to be living in Dubai to earn that much – but you can apply for the advertised £6.38 per hour jobs advertised by the Council on their website if you like?
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Oh well, quit whinging about this an get a FOI claim in, instead of frightening people with vague rumours of what it might be, despite council comments. You’d think all the straws would have been grasped by now!
There’s soldiers being made redundant right now but Pickled can ‘find’ £250 million for weekly bin collection to make Conservatives feel good conference next week. Now theres something to discuss..
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Good grief, what nonsense. No, not the council, the reactions of some people on here.
What paranoid worlds people must live in. The council are taking photographs of things they own in a bid to improve the service they provide.
As for the legality of taking photographs in a public place, if it’s invasion or trespass, or whatever you like to call it, how on earth did Google (Streetmap) get away with it, or local Estate agents when they take photographs which just happen to include neighbouring properties.
Not long back from Florida, where the rules about the bin are much more exacting than here. If the bin isn’t within so many meters of the roadm, and facing the right direction, owners get a fine.
We all create the rubbish that goes in the bin, the least we can do is make it’s collection a bit easier.
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OMG the Star has been bought out by the Daily Mail by the looks of it!
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Daily Wail.. yes, you can hear them wailing at Telford from the hills – first though, they do need to rename the link “News” to “Speculation”.
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i dont mind
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I dont see what the big problem is with somebody coming out to take a picture of your bin obviously the people complaining have nothing better to do i suppose GROW UP
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