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Now it's the citizen snoopers: Councils recruit unpaid volunteers to spy on their neighbours
Last updated at 02:44am on 30.08.08
Councils are recruiting 'citizen snoopers' to report litter louts, dog foulers and even people who fail to sort out their rubbish properly.
The 'environment volunteers' will also be responsible for encouraging neighbours to cut down on waste.
The move comes as local authorities dish out £100 fines to householders who leave out too much rubbish or fail to follow recycling rules.
Spy on your neighbours: Councils are recruiting spotters to report litter louts, dog foulers and bad recyclers
It will fuel fears that Britain is lurching towards a Big Brother society, following the revelation this week that the Home Office is extending some police powers to council staff and private security guards.
Critics said the latest scheme could easily be abused and encourage a culture of bin spies and curtain twitchers.
Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'Snooping on your neighbours to report recycling infringements sounds like something straight out of the East German Stasi's copybook.
'With council tax so high, the last thing people want to pay for is an army of busybodies peering through their net curtains at their neighbours as they put out their rubbish.'
Recruitment adverts appealing for the unpaid environmental volunteers have appeared across the country in recent months.
In Hampshire, Eastleigh council wants locals to 'monitor local environmental quality' and report 'issues' involving recycling and waste. In East London, Tower Hamlets is recruiting volunteers for a crackdown on reluctant recyclers. Other councils are expected to launch similar schemes.
Officially, the volunteers are not encouraged to spy on neighbours or report them. But councils are unlikely to ignore tip-offs.
Earlier this year the Daily Mail revealed that councils have hired 850 agents and informers to catch fly-tippers, tax cheats and other offenders.
The 'covert human intelligence sources' keep watch on suspected law-breakers and yobs. Any evidence they find, such as illegal alcohol sales or wastedumping, can be used in court.
The latest recruits are being hired by council environment departments.
Eastleigh has already taken on around a dozen who answered an advert in a council newsletter which said: 'Volunteers will be involved in reporting issues in their area such as recycling, waste, fly-tipping, graffiti, dog fouling and abandoned vehicles'.
The recruits will also be involved in the 'promotion of recycling and waste minimisation across the borough'.
The LibDem-controlled council denied the volunteers would be asked to spy on neighbours.
'These are all people who care about the environment and they will be ambassadors for their area,' a spokesman said. 'They will be there to report graffiti, abandoned vehicles and local vandalism, but not to report on other individuals.'
The volunteers will be trained on the council's waste and recycling policies and asked to explain them in the community.
'They might go to an over-60s club and talk about recycling,' said the spokesman.
Citizen Spy: Councils are unlikely to ignore 'tip-offs' from their snoop-squad
But Labour councillor Brian Norgate said: 'I wouldn't be overkeen on asking volunteers to be snooping, if that's what this turned out to be. We have people trained in doing this.'
Tower Hamlets calls its volunteers 'environment champions'. According to the council they report on 'a number of environmental crimes, issues and concerns, such as graffiti, dumped rubbish and abandoned cars.'
A spokesman said: 'They demonstrate environmentally-friendly behaviour, encourage other residents to recycle and are pro-active in the neighbourhood.'
The Local Government Association said: 'Environment volunteers care passionately about their area and want to protect it. They are not snoopers. They will help councils cut crime and make places cleaner, greener and safer.'
The news follows a trend of recruiting ordinary people to help catch those responsible for minor crimes. On Wednesday, it emerged more than 1,400 people will have police powers under the Home Office's Community Safety Accreditation Scheme.
Security guards, park wardens and other local authority staff can issue fines for a large number of offences, stop cars and seize alcohol from underage drinkers.
Reader views (15)
My home is being spied on allready as I do research on the New World Order! My lap top has allready been accessed with out my knoledge. I have to change my pass word now every time. And to recriute unpaid people. Slave labour! Say no to the new world order!
- Steve, pontypridd, south wales, UK
I think we ought to recruit community Spys to spy on on corrupt Councils, Councillors and Corporations armed with cameras.
We can report on their carbon footprints and follow them in to gay bars or brothels and report any case case of do as i say not as i do.
Its us who should be spying on them not the other way around.
- Fred, Dudley
Why do the media still use that oft-repeated line that Britain is "sleepwalking towards, or "lurching towards" a surveillance society straight out of Orwell's 1984.
You're already there, Britain. You're already there.
You might as well have kept the planes on the ground back in 1940, because the effort was obviously wasted.
- Ian Roberts, Hamilton, Ontario
Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
In today's case, the enemy is looking at us in the mirror each day. Security and order will always seem attractive in the short run. However, remember the price paid will be that of freedom. A price people always regret paying down the road.
- Chino Churn Twills, Hyde Park, London, UK
Could the last person to leave please switch off the lights?
- Pete, Telfordski, United (ha!) Kingdom
This is scary as hell. I am now studying in London but I was born in Romania. I'm too young to remember too much about what was like during communism, but my parents and grandparents do, and it wasn't pretty. Some will say that this is not communism. Yes, it isn't. But not the communism itself wasn't 100% of the problem. The real problem was the totalitarianism it lead to. But totalitarianism is not unique to communism and, unfortunately, the UK and the US seem to unwittingly be heading towards it. I used to look at the UK and the US in admiration but nowadays I feel more and more disappointed... "betrayed" would be a better word for it.
Moreover, using environmentalism to justify something like this is really pathetic.
- Theo, London, UK
@Beth Dallow .. "What about terrorists?"
Only if they don't recycle, obviously..
- Peter, Woking, UK
Are you mad? This needs to be stomped on by higher levels of government. Local councils are naturally nosy, so they mustn't have the authority to do such things.
- Erik, Oslo, Norway
Orwell's 1984 has arrived a few years late.
The UK is moving to a socialist Londonistan, and well on the way
The whole EU just has a generation or two before it becomes all Islamic as well as socialist
- Ming Bucibei, Ann Arbor USA
This country is becoming more and more like East Germany every day. Kick out this corrupt Govt. and all their agents
- Adam, Harrow, UK
What about terrorists?
- Beth Dallow, London UK
Seems a little Orwellian to me...
but what else is new.
- Chris, Atlanta, USA
For several years I worked for a German software company here in San Francisco. The company was founded in Jena Germany which is in the former East Germany. One of my co-workers who is also a good friend, told me the story about a neighbour of his while he was growing up before reunification.
He told me that this neighbour was the neighbourhood stasi informant and everyone knew it. Everyone socialized with the family, and he was best friends with one of the sons of the informant. The kids all went to the same school, the fathers all worked at the same factory, and the mothers were all very close.
After reunification the man was a pariah. In a very short time the family had to move to another town.
My friend was pretty young during reunification but the memories were very clear for him because he was not allowed to be friends with the family anymore. The kids had slept at each other's homes, gone on vacation together, but as soon as the informant lost his protectors in the stasi his life was over.
- Bittermike, san francisco, USA
The has happened before.
Britain, where are you headed? You, with the United States, are headed towards oblivion.
- Treephalanges, Pennsylvania, United States
This is exactly the same tactic that the Stasi used in the former East Germany.
Is this what is meant by EUropean integration?
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
