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26
Nov 2020
Conservative council leader reports Lib Dems to Information Commissioner
Harrogate Borough Council leader, Richard Cooper, has sent a letter to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) asking for the local Lib Dems' petitions to be investigated for "data harvesting".
Cllr Cooper says none of the four petitions were submitted to relevant bodies and were instead an exercise to build a database of contact information. The Liberal Democrats say the accusations are false and a cynical ploy to put people off signing petitions.
In the letter Mr Cooper says he believes the party "may have breached at least three tenets of data protection".
The ICO was set up to uphold an individual's data privacy. The ICO told the Stray Ferret it is yet to receive the letter but a spokesperson added:
Cllr Cooper criticised the Lib Dems in the letter saying the purposes of the petitions put forward were not fulfilled:
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The Liberal Democrats have called his accusations "ridiculous and laughable".
The party says three of the petitions were not submitted but insists the Stray FM petition was sent to Bauer Media.
The campaign manager for the Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrats, Conor McKenzie, said:
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