Surveillance powers designed to tackle terrorism have been used 45 times by Wirral Council .

The controversial Ripa (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) has been employed by the town hall to carry out surveillance in “targeted enforcement operations”.

But a councillor has accused the authority of “bankrolling an army of town hall spies acting out their James Bond fantasies”.

Revelations across the UK last week showed councils had used their undercover snoopers to investigate alleged offences including littering, illegal street trading, and taking the fairy lights from a town Christmas tree.

Wirral Council’s use of the Ripa laws will come under scrutiny this week when a report comes before the corporate services overview and scrutiny committee on Thurs-day.

The committee’s chairman, Cllr Leah Fraser, said: “People’s privacy and liberty have been undermined by the disprop-ortionate use of surveillance powers by town halls. “Taxpayers’ money is being wasted on bankrolling an army of town hall spies acting out their James Bond fantasies.

“We know the powers were used 45 times by Wirral last year, but what we don’t know is how many council staff have the power to grant authorisation for the use of Ripa, or which specific Ripa powers our authority employs when conducting an investigation. “These powers should only be used to tackle terror and serious crime.”

Nationally, it has been revealed that Ripa has been used more than 10,000 times by local authorities since it came into force in 2004. Ripa powers have been used on 10,288 occasions since then, but just 9% of those inquiries led to a successful prosecution, caution, or fixed penalty notice.

A Wirral Council spokesman said the authority uses surveillance techniques to assist with targeted enforcement oper-ations against alleged rogue traders and to obtain court orders to tackle anti-social behaviour. In 2007/8 the council granted 45 authorisations for surveillance operations “which produced evidence subsequently used to bring numerous successful prosecutions”.