Sefton Council and the Surveillance State

The surveillance state is something which we associate with Communist Soviet union, North Korea or East Germany. The Uk however, now has more CCTV cameras per head of population than any Western democracy. That is only part of the story. This Tory government has made the error of going down the devolution route, giving Useless Local authorities far too many powers. Yes the Housing act 2004 was a creation of the Labour government, but the Anti Business anti Landlord Tory government has encouraged Councils up and down the land to introduce their rotten selective licensing schemes.

This brings me to Sefton Council and the extent to which the surveillance state exists . “Mission creep personified”.

Sefton Council or “Sefton Plus” as they like to call themselves attempting to give the impression that they add something. The only thing they add is increased Council Tax bills for long suffering residents. Back to the substantive point. Seftons application form for landlords contains a section where the applicant must inform the busy body authority of the addresses of properties which the applicant owns and which are licensed elsewhere. Yes licensed in other Areas out side of Sefton. When I took Sefton to task and informed them that they must change this or I would make an ICO complaint as I did with Liverpool, their reply was astounding.

To conform with the DPA/GDPR bodies holding information have a duty to ensure all data is accurate and up to date. I asked Sefton how they intended to keep the data accurate, as I might dispose of a unit in London and acquire another in Leeds. There is no condition in their rubbish licence mandating that I supply this excessive and unnecessary info, nor does the HA 2004 allow for such information to be collated. Sefton informed me that They would expect me to supply the information to allow them to keep the info accurate and therefore remain GDPR Compliant. Yes Folks Sefton council now want us to assist them to remain legally compliant. I informed Sefton that I desperately wanted these fantastic Landlord licences but under no circumstances will I have truck with their data breaching scheme.

Over to the Information commissioner.

Larry