One in Every 78 Adults Surveilled by Councils in Britain Last Year

The Liberal Democrat party is speaking out on Council Snooping after revelations that an average of 1,500 surveillance requests were made every day in Britain last year - equivalent to one in every 78 adults having been targeted across the year.

I've talked about surveillance by Local Authorities before, but these figures just seem out of all proportion to any justifiable role for spying by councils. I assume the numbers will look smaller once one takes into account that many of these requests will be for repeat surveillance of the same people (though I've no idea by how much).

The Lib Dem solution is for the power to grant surveillance requests to be taken away from government and handed over to magistrates:

We have sleepwalked into a surveillance state, but without adequate safeguards. Having the home secretary in charge of authorisation is like asking the fox to guard the hen house. The government forgets that George Orwell's 1984 was a warning and not a blueprint.

Is there anything at all to be said in defence of the law as it currently stands? Are there, for example, any scenarios in which really necessary Council surveillance requests would be likely to be turned down by a magistrate? (What could such scenarios be?) And does anyone disagree that Councils are using these powers far too often?