A BISHOPS Lydeard man says he was bombarded with e-mails from the council every 40 minutes over six days - each revealing personal information of the same 900 people.

Peter Gover was among people sent a message by Somerset West and Taunton Council containing the e-mail addresses of all 900 recipients in breach of the Data Protection Act.

Mr Gover said that 40 minutes after a reminder to renew his garden waste collection subscription landed in his inbox on Friday afternoon, the local authority sent a recall message.

"Then 40 minutes after that I received the original message again and 40 minutes later the recall e-mail," said Mr Gover.

"That carried on for the rest of Friday, all over the weekend and Monday and Tuesday until it finally ended at about midday on Wednesday.

"I rang the council to complain on Monday and Tuesday, but the e-mails kept coming.

"By Wednesday, I'd had hundreds of them. I just kept deleting them, but it was an invasion of my privacy.

"I'd had enough and rang the council again and this time it stopped."

Mr Gover was greeted with around 20 pings when he switched his phone on each morning.

He said the council told him that not all of the 900 recipients were affected in the same way.

The council turned down his request for a free green bin collection over the next year as a form of compensation.

SWT has written to the 900 recipients apologising and assuring them steps, including staff refresher training and a secondary checking procedure, are being taken to avoid a repeat.

The council has also reported itself to the Information Commissioner's Office.