UK NEWS

SPIES CHECK BINS TO SEE IF FAMILIES ARE WASTING FOOD

SNOOPING: Rubbish is being analysed

Wednesday June 11,2008

By Nick Fagge

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(18)

HOUSEHOLD rubbish is being secretly collected and analysed in what are feared to be plans for pay-as-you-throw bin taxes.

Home owners discovered that their bins have been removed by council snoopers who claimed it is just a “fact-finding exercise” to see much food is thrown away.

But last night the £1,700 project was branded a “gross invasion of privacy”. It is thought it may be the first step towards charging residents who fail to meet Government recycling targets.

Residents only found out their rubbish had been taken away when the local council wrote to them. Officials even substituted new bins so home owners would be unaware of the swap and not change their refuse habits.

But home owners are angry that there is a danger that confidential information thrown away could be misused.

Yesterday Shadow Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said: “This is yet more evidence if any was needed of the march of bin brother. The heavy hand of Whitehall is forcing town halls to adopt snooping tactics on local residents.

“This is a clear sign that Labour are pressing ahead with rolling out not only chips in bins but also bin taxes.”

The refuse bins were removed from selected homes in Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and East Grinstead by Mid Sussex District Council.

Yesterday officials at the Conservative-run council insisted the scheme was a “completely anonymous fact-finding exercise” to gauge how much food is being dumped.

Local councillor Brian Hall said: “The sampling of residents’ waste is a gross invasion of privacy. What people put in their bins is private, it’s not for other people to go rummaging through.” A furious resident, who did not want to be named, said: “If I find out that the council have been going through my bins, I’d take contents in my car to the council offices and dump them in their rather neat reception area.”

The council said the “waste audit” is carried out with Brighton University’s waste and energy research group which is investigating how the new fortnightly collection service is working.

Last night council leader Gordon Marples said: “The council is absolutely not snooping on our residents. We took the decision to carry out an anonymous audit of 30 landfill bins to analyse what people are putting in their bins, and in particular how much is food waste.

“Samples were analysed anonymously and there is no cause for concern over confidentiality.”

ANNR , NO DIFFERENCE ?

12.06.08, 9:28pm

Only the Language you speak now would have been the difference.

Socialism then is Solialism now..
.

• Posted by: BratislavaUK • Report Comment

TODAYS GOVERNMENT AND COUNCILS

12.06.08, 9:34am

with all that is going on in this country at the moment I often wonder what it would be like if Hitler had won the war????

• Posted by: ANNR • Report Comment

I'M AMAZED!

11.06.08, 11:17pm

How did a local council manage to send someone out of the office with it only costing £1700?

Usually it cost £50k just to get them to drive down your street... £1700 for looking in some bins sounds like a bargain.

Maybe there were additional charges they haven't added yet... the £200,000 fee for typing up the results for example...?

• Posted by: NathanHobbs • Report Comment

THE ANSWER TO THIS IS....

11.06.08, 9:08pm

REGURGITATE!

• Posted by: ghostdog • Report Comment

PAY-AS-YOU-THROW RUBBISH - YES - ON ONE CONDITION

11.06.08, 4:37pm

I will be only to happy to pay but only to throw out this rubbish government.

• Posted by: Peter_Pan • Report Comment

WILL DICTATOR PRUDENCE U-TURN UNELECTED BROWN INITIATE YET ANOTHER DATABASE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION?

11.06.08, 3:56pm

I would NOT trust NuLabour OR ANY COUNCIL to collate any data on myself.

THEY ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

Today we learn that a 17 year old hacker in the USA has infiltrated the Bedfordshire Constabulary website.

Government departments are losing laptops containing sensitive data on UK citizens every day of the week.

Can you imagine the Council Gestapo Enforcement Muppet logging all your refuse on a huge database - to be cross-referenced, naturally, with HM Revenue and your bank account!!

Are we being ruled by imbeciles?

Put the lot of them into the nearest wheelie bin and shut the lid tight (or you will be fined for leaving the lid open 4")!!

• Posted by: ReubenMohawali • Report Comment