Kettering CCTV Error as Cameras Put up without Permission

Council-run CCTV cameras in Kettering lack planning permission.

18:04 24 March 2022

North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) has faced complaints to the Information Commissioner's Office over the lack of required planning permission for its CCTV cameras in Kettering. 

 

The cameras, which were installed at the Rockingham Road Pleasure Park, North Park and Mill Road Park, were part of a £150,000 project to make the town safer. However, they lacked signs required by data protection regulations, which means that many park users may potentially have been illegally monitored. 

 

NNC confirmed that they are working to address the outstanding issues but says there is no requirement to turn the cameras off until they are sorted. 

 

One whistleblower said: "It's an old chestnut that people with nothing to fear should have nothing to hide.

 

"But that takes for granted that the authorities doing the monitoring are following all the legal guidelines and acting professionally.

 

"I don't have very much confidence that the council can be trusted to run CCTV systems when it forgets the pretty basic legal requirement to have signs warning people that they are being filmed and, even more basically, makes such a huge planning cock-up."