Council spam filter fouls community spirit

Posted on 31 May 2006 at 13:27

A Lancashire man was unable to prevent a neighbour building an extension to his home because of the local council's spam filter.

Ray Kennedy, 51, of Middleton, sent three emails to Rochdale Borough Council, but the first two were blocked since they contained the common construction term 'erection'. By the time his third email arrived permission for the extension had been granted.

The council said that it will be apologising, though it could not explain why the third email had not been rejected, despite containing the same offending word.

The software that protects the council's e-mail system from spam and other offensive material is not designed by the council and we do not control which words are blocked,' a spokesman said.

'I am chasing this up, but we would need to see the content of the first two e-mails and of course they were banned so we can't.'

Kennedy said he was shocked that legitimate emails are blocked without any checks.

'I couldn't believe that they didn't review emails that come in and are stopped in that manner,' he said, adding that the council's practices have caused problems between him and his neighbours.

Author: Simon Aughton

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