To be interrupted while working can be an annoyance. For someone to try and prevent me from working is an unacceptable, but that is what happened to me last month when I came face to face with petty officialdom.
I was on the picturesque Sandbanks beach, in Poole, doing a PR shoot of local businesswoman Barbara Cox as she prepared for her Sahara Trek in support of the Help for Heroes campaign. We’d been on the beach for about five minutes when a Poole Borough Council warden arrived and told me I wasn’t allowed to take photos on the beach because of a new by-law.
I’ve been a professional photographer for 13 years, run my own photography agency – Seeker Photography.com – come from the area and have done countless shoots on that particular stretch.
I answered that I could take photos there and showed him a Bureau of Freelance Photographers’ rights card, which states ‘there is no law in the UK preventing a photographer from taking photos in a public place.’
That just wasn’t good enough for the warden who immediately radioed his office. Then, with a smile on his face, he told me I DID need a permit.
He said he would allow me to finish the shoot then I could go to the council offices to see a copy of the by-law. Of course, when I arrived there was no copy of such a by-law because none exists.
So what Poole council are doing is illegal. Not only is this a civil rights issue, they are trying to deny me my right to work. It also goes against Home Office and Number 10 advice. This is a totally unacceptable situation.
Even the police are saying that I was not in breach of the law when taking pictures on Sandbanks beach. The only restrictions would have been if there were were children there, but the place was all but deserted at the time.
I am incensed by the whole issue and have written to the local council as well local MPs Annette Brooke and Robert Syms, and whilst I have received drafts of letters from individual councillors I still haven’t received any official communication from the council.
Through the media Poole council are saying they want professional photographers taking photographs on private land to ask for permission and prove they have the correct public liability insurance. But this is a policy that I’ve never heard of in all my years of beach photo shoots.
Sandbanks beach is a popular spot for photo shoots, especially for weddings. So does that mean every Saturday morning there will be a queue of photographers at the local council offices, armed with insurance certificates and brides in tow waiting for permission to start work?
This whole episode has gained the a lot interest in the media, both locally and nationally including The Telegraph and Metro. I was even interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live. All it has done is make Poole council look stupid as each subsequent statement they put out contradicted previous ones.
The latest outcome is that Poole Council haven’t contacted me officially, Annette Brooke MP is to take it up at Ministerial level, I and countless other photographers are still carrying out photoshoots in the public spaces of the Borough – and all without permits!
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