What is the legal stance on taking photos of your home town and using them on you own website that is a site used for commercial purposes? Do you need council permission or the likes?
Just claim you work for Google StreetView But it really depends where you live.. And it can't hurt calling the council and asking.
If you are taking the pictures in a public place then you do not need permission from anybody. Unless, of course, there are people in the images. Then you would need a consent form from the people in the picture. Pictures taken of buildings by you in a public area are yours to do with as you please.
In the United States you can take a picture of anything you want in a public place including buildings and people. You can sell and publish those photos and use them for commercial purposes. What you can't do is take a photo of a person and put them where it looks they are are sponsoring, endorsing, selling, etc. But you most certainly can take photos of people and use them without their permission.
browntwn is right about people in public areas in the US. I must not have had my coffee this morning.