Lots of people like to bash the Daily Mail for being a scurrilous right-wing rag, but all credit to them for uncovering the way councils are using legislation nominally aimed at terrorists to spy on ordinary residents.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act allows public bodies to use "investigatory powers" such as "the interception of communications" and "covert surveillance" to gather information. In practice, this means things like opening people's mail and putting up hidden cameras to record their movements.

Officially, the Act is there to help "the security and intelligence agencies, law enforcement and other public authorities" do their job. Which sounds reasonable enough.

Even in these cynical times, most of us would assume the security and intelligence agencies focus their efforts on fighting terrorism or serious organised crime, and if a little phone tapping or secret filming is going to help then all power to them.

But the Mail reveals that councils have used the act to help them catch people dropping litter or putting out their bins on the wrong day.

A quick trawl through recent Freedom of Information requests also finds that Hackney Council has used it to help catch graffiti artists. Bizarrely, the council claims that this is copyrighted information. How can a council claim copyright on details of how it spends taxpayers' money?

I'm sure some people would argue there's nothing wrong with using spy tactics to catch graffiti artists, litter-bugs or other anti-social types.

I don't agree. You need to strike a balance between a Big Brother state and total anarchy, and this seems to move us too far in the Orwellian direction.

But I'd accept there might be reasonable arguments on the other side. What I'm sure of, however, is this: when the state gains new powers, it's going to use them. Assurances that they're only there for emergencies, or to protect us from the really nasty folk, are soon forgotten. They affect all of us.

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