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Satellite navigation tracking Exeter bin collections Satellite navigation tracking Exeter bin collections
(about 7 hours later)
A Devon council is using satellite navigation to track refuse collections.A Devon council is using satellite navigation to track refuse collections.
Managers at Exeter City Council said the technology means they can watch the progress of refuse vehicles in real time and tell which bins are emptied. Managers at Exeter City Council said the technology meant they could watch the progress of refuse vehicles and tell which bins are emptied.
If people call about collections, the council can tell them if their street has been cleared or if dust carts are yet to arrive, they said. Crews would input the reasons for bins not being emptied - such as if they were not put out or were too full.
Critics said they were concerned that information collected about residents could be used for other purposes. Critics said they were concerned information collected about residents could be used for other purposes.
'Snow disruption'
Robert Norley, from Exeter City Council's environmental health services department, said it was a "useful system".
He said: "If customers call us, we can give them up-to-date information.
"We also think it will be useful in dealing with situations such as snow disruption."
Nick Pickles, from Big Brother Watch, which campaigns on privacy issues, said such technology would bring benefits and that it had, for example, transformed the way the emergency service vehicles worked.
But he added that there were concerns if information gathered about individual households was used for other purposes.
He said: "There could be be implications, there could be security implications; and what does that council do with that information?
"Until it answers those questions, people should rightly ask what's going on and whether it is just another exercise for the council to snoop."