Bin bag 'spy camera' to enforce refuse rules

London Telegraph
Saturday June 16, 2007

A council is to hide a camera in a bin bag to catch residents who do not follow new rules about putting out the rubbish.

Householders in a seaside town have been told to put their bins out at the front of their homes and not in an alleyway to the rear.

They must also leave their rubbish out between set times to ensure it does not attract pests or miss the dust cart.

To enforce the new rules, a camera will be placed in a rubbish bag and left in an alleyway to blend in with the surroundings to catch offenders. Those filmed breaking the rules will be given a ticking off.

Repeat offenders could be handed a fixed penalty notice or even be taken to court and fined up to £1,000.

The tiny covert camera, which has cost Weymouth and Portland Council, Dorset, up to £10,000, will also help catch householders who put their rubbish out too early or too late.

The initiative has shocked local taxpayers. The spy camera is being introduced in the Park district in Weymouth, an area that suffers from fly-tipping. Residents in the area will have to follow strict rules which come into force on June 22.

advertisementThey will only be allowed to put out their rubbish between 8pm and 6am the night before collection and it will have to be at the front of their homes.

Peter Bury, the council environmental health officer, said the camera will help enforce the new rules but also catch fly-tippers, graffiti artists and drug dealers.

He said: "As well as the alleyways we will also place the camera in bushes or a brick wall to catch fly tippers, and drug dealers."

Mr Bury said the device will not be hooked up to a control room and staff will study the footage after a few hours filming.

He said refuse collectors will be alerted as to when and where it will placed in bin bags to stop them carting it off as rubbish. In March, a London borough announced plans to hide cameras in tin cans and bricks to catch out offenders.

Ealing council in west London said the hidden cameras would catch people committing "major envirocrimes".

More than 30 councils have already secretly fitted microchips to wheelie bins as the Government comes under increasing pressure to increase recycling rates.