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Monday 12 January 2009

CCTV Britain

The Telegraph report:
"when the Fletcher family went for a pre-Christmas treat at the Manor Restaurant in Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, they were disappointed with their meal.

Marilyn Fletcher, 57, sent a letter complaining of slow service and poor food, in a lunch which cost £127 for four.

But she was left astonished by the restaurant's response. Simon Offen, the catering manager, emailed her to say he disputed her version of events after he had "watched and listened with interest to the video recording of her table".

Mrs Fletcher was horrified that the meal had been recorded on CCTV cameras, and said her family found it "extremely disturbing" and felt "outrage at the invasion of our privacy".

In a letter to the National Trust's director-general, Dame Fiona Reynolds, she asked: "Does the National Trust condone recording, watching and listening to private conversations at customers' tables in National Trust restaurants?"

Mrs Fletcher, from Great Missenden, near High Wycombe, has demanded to see and listen to the recording, and has questioned the legality of Mr Offen's actions.

"There was no legitimate or lawful reason why Mr Offen should have been recording conversations at our table and then listening to them 'with interest'," she said.

A spokeswoman for the Information Commissioner said that CCTV cameras should only be used if there was a "genuine justification" for them, usually to prevent or detect crime. Recording conversations in a restaurant would be "deeply intrusive", she said."


What a lovely country the UK has become if our meals are now recorded as well as our car journeys, train journeys, walks in London etc. etc. etc.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Was she justified in her complaints?

Not a nice thing to discover if you are a genuine complainant but if she was just after a freebie , serves (NPI) her right.

I think it is the law that cctv surveillance has to clearly signed up where it is being used.