Dog owners falling foul of the law and breaches of the smoking ban are just some of the cases which have brought surveillance operations under scrutiny.

According to a report by the campaign group Big Brother Watch, local councils have carried out more than 9,000 surveillance operations over a three-year period. It said details obtained from 345 local authorities across the UK under the Freedom of Information Act showed they conducted operations under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) on 9,607 occasions between 2008 and 2011 – more than eight a day.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, says: “The coalition was right to change the law so councils cannot decide for themselves when to spy on residents. However, the continued use of these powers for relatively trivial matters in recent years means it is essential we continue to monitor how and why surveillance operations are mounted to ensure the new system is operating properly.

“It is also important that councils begin to publish some details on their surveillance operations, for example how many are pursued each year and for what offences, so the public can have faith that the powers are being used responsibly.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) says councils use Ripa “sparingly and responsibly” to combat crimes of public concern.

Mehboob Khan, chairman of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board, says on average a local authority only used Ripa powers less than ten times a year while council requests for communications data under the act made up only 0.3 per cent of all requests received.

“People quite rightly expect councils to tackle rogue traders, loan sharks and benefit fraudsters operating in their area.

“These criminals have been caught and prosecuted using evidence gained from surveillance. Without these powers it would be much harder, and in some cases impossible, to bring offenders to justice.

“Councils know how important it is that people can feel safe in the knowledge that these powers are used sparingly and responsibly.

“From November, councils will be the only public body that obtains approval from a magistrate each time they use surveillance powers.”

From a control room in the heart of Bradford, a bank of monitors capture footage from more than 200 cameras located around the city and district.

Contrary to the criticism often levelled at such operations that they are ‘spying’ on the public, they aren’t.

“It’s nothing like that. People always say we spy on people but we are not spying on people,” assures Bradford’s CCTV manager Phil Holmes.

“We cannot sit watching individuals walking down the street, but we are there to react to anything that goes on like Shop Watch,” he says, referring to a widely-used initiative tackling shoplifting in local towns and cities.

“It is unfortunate that people don’t realise what good work we do,” he adds.

According to Phil, Bradford Council hasn’t issued a Ripa request in 12 months. “I know people whinge about dog fouling and stuff, but on the flip side, it isn’t nice if your child trips or falls in it because it is against the law, and although we don’t specifically target things like that, we have used CCTV to prosecute fly tippers.

“If the cameras are there we are not turning a blind eye to it,” he says defiantly.

Over the years, Bradford’s CCTV system has helped to clean up one of the city’s worst fly-tipped streets. Information gleaned from the system has also contributed to thousands of criminal prosecutions.

Last year, out of the 3,473 incidents, Phil and his 15-strong workforce, logged on their system, 1,138 arrests were made. “They could range from everything from affray, shop lifting to drink driving, stolen vehicles, it could be a whole array of things,” says Phil.

In the same year, Phil and his team received 2,751 requests for footage from the police. According to Phil, about a third of the information contained something of ‘evidential value’.

“We collect the information and pass it over to the police,” he explains.

Bradford has had the benefit of a CCTV system for many years, but in 2001/2002 a new control room was set up in the city amalgamating the operations for Bradford and surrounding areas, including Keighley , Bingley , Silsden , Shipley , Baildon , Wibsey , Idle , Wrose and Holme Wood under one roof.

As well as providing cover 24 hours a day, staff also carry out other duties including monitoring fire and security alarm systems for the council.