A BLACKLIST containing details of nearly 400 people is being held by Kirklees Council.
Names, ages and addresses of individuals are kept on a database if it is believed they pose a threat to the health and safety of council employees.
People are not automatically told whether they are on it, but the council says individuals can find out if they ask.
Examples of why people, or certain addresses, would be on the Hazard Warning Database are:
* Verbal abuse and racist comments
* Physical abuse
* Having dangerous dogs
* Sexual harassment
* Presence of discarded syringes.
There are 408 entries on the database. Of these, 20 records are address only.
This could include a property where an official may have encountered a dangerous dog, for example.
Council leader Clr Robert Light said that as a good employer Kirklees had a duty to protect its staff.
He added: "The database is there to protect staff. It's not anything that's sinister.
"It's just to protect our staff, so if there have been instances where there have been problems they can be on their guard for the future."
Melvin Gray, from Almondbury, a member of pressure group Concern4Justice, said he could understand why the council needed to protect its employees.
But Dr Gray added: "If you don't tell someone that you keep a secret file on them it renders the legislation for access impotent.
"If they have no reason to suspect the file is kept on them what use is the legislation?
"I have no objection to any employer keeping whatever reasonable matters he thinks are necessary to protect staff from going out into remote areas. There might be a mad axeman in Pole Moor!
"But this is very, very different to saying: `We'll keep all this secret and we're not going to let this mad axeman know'.
"There's a great danger that this person living in a remote hut is not an axeman at all and his life is being made a misery because files exist saying he is a mad axeman."
Dr Gray said people needed to have the opportunity to see if the details were correct or whether they needed challenging.
"If you don't allow them this opportunity then we're falling deeper into this Orwellian hole."
Dr Gray raised the issue of secret databases at a recent meeting of Kirklees. Clr Light said his comments were "wide of the mark".
Later Clr Light said: "The council has never denied the existence of this database.
"It's been up front from day one with Dr Gray and anyone else who's raised it.
"The issues raised in council were databases going much further than this and that's why I said he was wide of the mark."
A Kirklees spokesman said: "The purpose of the database is to record the hazards which the council's employees encounter in the course of their duties, so that other employees can be warned about them.
"The council has a duty to protect its staff from risks to health, safety and welfare.
"The entries are intended to provide enough information about the hazard for precautions to be taken.
"They are not intended to provide any more personal information about any named individual than is necessary for that purpose."
As for how long the details were kept the spokesman said it was "no longer than necessary".
There were consultations across departments and discussions at to whether any incident was a one-off.
He added: "We review all the entries on a six-monthly basis, as well as entering any new information."
It was likely other councils had similar systems.
* If you want to find out if you are on the database write to Information Access Officer, Kirklees Council Corporate Performance and Information Unit, Room 108 High Street Buildings, Huddersfield HD1 2NQ.
