Traffic and Transport Surveillance

Last updated: 13 October 2020

The following privacy notice applies to information processed by Warwickshire County Council’s Traffic and Transport services. It should be read in addition to the Council’s overall Customer and Staff Privacy Notices.

The Council has an obligation as a local highway authority, and under the Traffic Management Act 2004, to collect traffic and transport related data, and to manage traffic on county roads.

For the primary purposes of traffic management and transport planning – optimising and reallocating road space and footways – the service will process your personal information as part of:

On-street camera surveys, using vehicle monitoring cameras and Artificial Intelligence Monitoring Equipment (AIME) to collect traffic and transport related data.
Traffic cameras (CCTV) used at busy traffic signal junctions in order to identify and resolve live traffic problems, including identifying the source of any problem, ascertaining what traffic measures are necessary for the protection of individuals where there has been a road traffic accident, and enabling traffic to move freely on the County’s roads.

Low resolution camera footage is used for:

Vehicle counts, including cycles
Pedestrian counts
Pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle’s tracks
Cycle-Parking Studies
Car-Parking Studies
Passenger Flow Surveys at transport locations, such as rail stations
Social distancing analysis – ensuring social distancing measures are considered in traffic modelling in order to promote safe town centre recovery*

* Whilst on-street Artificial Intelligence Monitoring Equipment (AIME) is used to survey social distancing between individuals and groups of pedestrians, and to count pedestrians, cyclists, traffic and transport related data, this is in order to identify mobility measures required to ensure social distancing and safe, active, sustainable transport to relieve the pressure on public transport. AIME is not used for enforcement purposes and will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to classify and count objects, including the number of road users (cars / cyclists / pedestrians).

In some instances, footage from WCC’s traffic cameras may be shared with Police when there is an RTA. This is not in relation to AIME.

In all locations where CCTV is used, signs are displayed notifying you that CCTV is in operation and providing details of who to contact for further information about the scheme.

We will capture visual images as part of:

Cycle and Pedestrian counts (no facial recognition) by video camera monitoring
Vehicle counts (no ANPR) by video monitoring. *

* Some on-street cameras used by the council but provided by third-party surveying companies have Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) capabilities in order to enable external surveying companies to develop origin/destination matrices and journey time information that is then shared with the council to determine number of trips and journey times between different zones. This does not include Artificial Intelligence Monitoring Equipment (AIME) that does not support ANPR. Potentially, licence plates could be visible in live traffic camera footage. Our legal bases for processing this personal information are:

GDPR Article 6(1)(e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority
GDPR Article 9(2)(g) – processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest
DPA 2018 Schedule 1 Part 2 – substantial public interest

We may share your information with:

External providers of on-street Artificial Intelligence Monitoring Equipment (AIME)
External framework consultants
External cloud storage provider
External traffic survey companies (where applicable)
External transport consultancies (where applicable)
External traffic signal maintenance or highways contractors (where applicable)
Other Local Authorities (where applicable) Police (where applicable)

We may also access CCTV footage from other local authorities where appropriate for the purposes stated above and as covered by Information Sharing Agreements with the relevant authorities.

AIME video footage is deleted from devices as soon as objects are classified and counted. Anonymous data is then transferred for further processing by WCC.

Traffic junction footage is kept on the camera devices for 7 days and then deleted unless it is necessary to view it to resolve a traffic problem, or it is requested where there has been a road traffic accident, or is otherwise needed to allow traffic to move freely on the County’s roads.

Find out how to access your personal information.

You are entitled to a copy of, or a description of, the personal data we hold that relates to you, subject to lawful restrictions. How to request this using the online secure form.

This service, in regard to the use of Artificial Intelligence Monitoring Equipment described above, does use automated decision making and you may be entitled to rectification, restriction, and objection to the processing of your personal information. Emailed requests should be made to the Traffic Modelling and Surveys team at TPU-Monitoring@warwickshire.gov.uk.

The right of erasure is not available for this service.

See the council’s overall privacy notice for further contact details and if you have a complaint about your information rights.