Council leaders will admit today that public confidence in surveillance powers has been seriously undermined because they have been used to snoop on people suspected of petty offences.

Two government ministers have sent a letter to local councils, telling them that the image of local government has been tarnished by the misuse of powers for trivial purposes.

In recent months, officials have been criticised for using such powers to monitor people suspected of allowing their dogs to foul public places or of putting their bins out on the wrong day.

Today’s letters from Vernon Coaker, the police minister at the Home Office, John Healey, the local government minister, and from local government leaders is a sign of the damage caused to their reputation by the misuse of the powers.

The Local Government Association’s statement says: “All public bodies that use surveillance powers must rebuild public confidence by demonstrating this is done to help bring serious criminals to justice.”

It was issued as the Government outlined proposals to ensure that surveillance powers of local councils under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) are used only to identify serious offending.

Hazel Harding, chairwoman of the Local Government Association’s safer communities board, said: “Whilst it is a matter for each council to determine for its area, the Local Government Association’s advice is that, save in the most unusual and extreme circumstances, it is inappropriate to use these powers for less serious matters.”

She said that it was now essential for all councils with the authority to use surveillance powers to demonstrate that they were needed but were being used appropriately, and with regard to privacy and civil liberties.

The intervention by the ministers and Ms Harding is an admission that the powers have, in recent years, been abused by overzealous officials.

When the Bill for the legislation was going through Parliament in 2000, privacy campaigners warned that “mission creep” would lead to powers being used inappropriately.

It was not a government measure that attracted much public attention. But in Whitehall and among civil liberties groups its importance was never in doubt.

The Act regulated surveillance and spying by the police, local councils and the security services that had previously been undertaken by official guidance. However, the Act was so widely drawn that nine years later many state agencies have the right to conduct surveillance operations.

The Act also made it clear that in addition to countering terrorism and serious crime, the surveillance powers could also be used to protect public health and safety and to prevent or detect crime. It is the sweeping nature of the surveillance powers that has allowed some councils to spy on those who are suspected of minor offences.

A survey by the Liberal Democrats found that 182 of the 475 local authorities in England and Wales had authorised the use of Ripa powers on 10,288 occasions in the past five years.

It found that 1,615 council staff have the power to authorise their use but that 340 were below the senior management grade. The study, using freedom of information laws, found that only 9 per cent of the authorisations have led to a successful prosecution, caution or fixed-penalty notice.

Overall, 475 local authorities have the power to use surveillance in public places, which includes eavesdropping on conversations, undertaking secret filming and tracking vehicles.

As Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, publishes her proposals to tighten the rules for the use of the powers, local councils are fighting a rearguard action to convince the public they are being used properly, and to tackle the issues that matter to voters.

Ms Harding said: “Parliament clearly intended that councils should use powers under Ripa, and they are being used to respond to residents’ complaints about serious criminals, like fly-tippers, rogue traders and people defrauding the benefits system.

“Time and again, these are just the type of crimes that residents tell councils they want to see tackled. Without these powers, it wouldn’t be possible to provide the level of reassurance and protection local people demand and deserve.”

Times Recommends

• Stand-ups laughing all the way to the bank
• How Britain’s wildlife fared during the year
• UK charity bids to save Borneo’s orang-utans