Lib Dems: ‘It’s busy-body local government at its worst’

A drone hovers over suburbia Alamy

By JOSH PETTITT
07:03, 11 Apr 2016

DRONES are set to be deployed by councils to snoop on residents making home improvements, it emerged today.

The unmanned aerial vehicles are set to be used in North London and have been flown in the north of Scotland to check on the progress of planning applications and to ensure homeowners are not breaching agreements.

Epping Forest district council has blown £10,000 on two drones, according to the Telegraph.

The local authority plans to turn over the use of the drones to officials in its planning enforcement and its emergency planning departments.

alamy

Officials said any “covert operations would be covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000″.

Meanwhile Moray council has hired three drones in the past two years to provide better views of some sites seeking consent such as windfarm applications.

The revelations have led to calls for rules to be drawn up to govern how councils can use drones while the information watchdog said it was “concerned” by the news.

Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dems’ home affairs spokesman, said: “Councils should not be spending taxpayers’ money on owning or renting drones.

“There is no real need for them. It is busy-body local government at its worst.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office said councils should consider whether drones were “necessary and proportionate”.

A spokesman said: “We are always concerned with developments like this that they will start to be used without having a clear purpose, justification and without data protection safeguards in place.”

Epping Forest council said it had not yet deployed the drones and was still training staff to fly the unmanned vehicles.

While a Moray council spokesman said: “The occasions we have used drones were in open farmland and construction sites, nowhere near residential.”

In the past councils have chartered planes fitted with heat sensors to root out dodgy landlords charging people rent for living in squalid sheds.