Waste Services Vehicle Hire
Case reference FOI2026/01016
Received 13 May 2026
Published 11 June 2026
Request
I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
1. Retention Requirements
Please confirm whether hire vehicles used by Guildford Borough Council are required under Council policy, contract terms, or industry-standard safety protocols to retain CCTV footage for a minimum period.
2. Contractual Obligations
Does the Council’s contract with the hire company include mandatory evidence-retention clauses for safety-related incidents or routine operational footage?
3. Compliance Failure
Does the Council consider the absence of this footage to be: a breach of contract, or a failure of compliance, or a failure of the hire company to meet its obligations?
4. Safety-Incident Documentation
Has the missing footage been recorded internally as a safety-related evidential gap, given that the manoeuvre under review involves reversing from Frimley Road into Henry Court without a banksman?
5. Further Retrieval Attempts
Please confirm whether any additional steps will betaken to obtain or recover the missing footage, or whether the Council now considers the footage permanently unavailable.
6. Date Range of Missing Footage
For clarity, please specify the exact dates for which hire-vehicle footage is missing.
Response
Please find the answers to your queries below:
I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
1. Retention Requirements
Please confirm whether hire vehicles used by Guildford Borough Council are required under Council policy, contract terms, or industry-standard safety protocols to retain CCTV footage for a minimum period.
Guildford Borough Council does not have a specific policy requiring CCTV retention periods for waste collection vehicles, including hire vehicles.
2. Contractual Obligations
Does the Council’s contract with the hire company include mandatory evidence-retention clauses for safety-related incidents or routine operational footage?
The Council’s contract with hire vehicle providers does not include specific clauses requiring the provision or retention of CCTV footage.
3. Compliance Failure
Does the Council consider the absence of this footage to be: a breach of contract, or a failure of compliance, or a failure of the hire company to meet its obligations?
As there are no contractual or policy requirements relating to CCTV provision or retention for hire vehicles, the absence of this footage is not classified as a breach of contract or compliance failure.
4. Safety-Incident Documentation
Has the missing footage been recorded internally as a safety-related evidential gap, given that the manoeuvre under review involves reversing from Frimley Road into Henry Court without a banksman?
The reported incident was investigated in line with the Council’s internal procedures upon receipt. Relevant internal vehicle CCTV footage was available from another one of our vehicles and this was considered sufficient to support the investigation. As such, the absence of hire vehicle footage was not recorded as an evidential gap.
The request for hire vehicle CCTV footage was made subsequently as part of an FOI enquiry. However, this particular footage (i.e. from the hire vehicle) did not form part of the Council’s original safety investigation, as the available internal footage from our other vehicle provided sufficient evidence to follow and conclude the investigation in accordance with established procedures.
5. Further Retrieval Attempts
Please confirm whether any additional steps will betaken to obtain or recover the missing footage, or whether the Council now considers the footage permanently unavailable.
Vehicle CCTV systems operate on a continuous recording loop, whereby older footage is automatically overwritten. The duration for which footage remains available varies depending on a range of factors, including system configuration, recording quality, storage capacity, and vehicle usage.
On this basis, the Council considers the hire vehicle footage in question to be permanently unavailable.
Where CCTV footage from hire vehicles remains available at the time of a request, it may be provided subject to standard data protection considerations.
The Council can also confirm that its most recent procurement exercise for hire waste vehicles includes provision for direct access to vehicle CCTV systems.
6. Date Range of Missing Footage
For clarity, please specify the exact dates for which hire-vehicle footage is missing.
Due to the loop recording nature of CCTV systems described above, it is not possible to specify exact dates for which footage is missing. Footage availability varies depending on system and operational factors.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Team
Guildford Borough Council
Documents
This is Guildford Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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