Legislative 'gap' stops council from using CCTV footage in litter lout prosecutions

Westmeath County Council cannot use CCTV footage to prosecute illegal dumpers due to a “gap in legislation”.

A number of county councils have been criticised by the Data Commissioner for using CCTV footage in court cases brought against people suspected of dumping waste illegally.

The reason the local authorities has fallen foul of the Data Commissioner is that there is a “gap in the legislation”, senior engineer Jonathan Deane told members at a recent meeting of the council's Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) on on Environment, Climate Action, Water and Emergency Services.

“CCTV is a key weapon that we have in litter control...However, the commissioner has criticised a number of local authorities saying that we are incorrectly using CCTV because the legislation that we prosecute people under doesn't specifically detail the use of it as an acceptable strategy. They said that there was no lawful basis for the use,” he said.

The state body that funds the cost of CCTV provision agrees with the commissioner and has asked councils not use footage until the legislative issue has been addressed. The necessary legislation will be enacted before the end of this year, Mr Deane said.

“Until that happens we are not using CCTV as a way of gathering information for prosecutions. It is an issue of concern for us because we think that CCTV is a very useful weapon. We are just are just waiting for that gap in legislation to be addressed,” he said.

SPC member Johnny Penrose said that it is extremely important that the legislative changes needed to allow CCTV footage be used in prosecutions is enacted as soon as possible.

“If people get to know this, and they will, there will be a vast amount of dumping at litter black spots. The sooner that is brought into law the better,” he said.