A FUMING woman has slammed council jobsworths after they fined her £400 when she reported fly-tipping behind her home.
Julie Hancock, from Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, complained about the mounting rubbish behind her house and three months later was slapped with the hefty penalty.
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Stoke-on-Trent City Council said they found a piece of cardboard in the waste that had her name on it and automatically presumed the resident was responsible – despite her having flagged the issue to them.
The eye-watering fine was squashed shortly afterwards, but the stunned local was then handed an £80 penalty for leaving her bin in the alleyway behind her home.
A furious Julie told Stoke-On-Trent Live: “I was fuming. I reported the mess, so why would I add my name to it? The alleyway is horrific.”
The driving instructor recalled discarded furniture cushions, animal waste and carcasses, a buggy and a high chair all strewn behind her home.
Julie blasted the council, claiming they “[don’t] take responsibility” for the escalating problem and “nothing was done about it”.
“I always take the rubbish to the tip. I’m on first name terms with the lads there,” added the 51-year-old.
“I always clean the alleyways up. Nothing happened until December when I got the fine through the door.”
The £400 fine was eventually retracted and the additional £80 was also cancelled after Julie got in touch with the media.
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Officials stated Julie had originally been issued the penalty because she had “failed” her “legal duty” to keep her bin off a “public highway”.
A spokesperson from the council’s environmental crime department told Julie: “Regardless of who placed the waste at the location, the allegation is not that you placed the waste at the location, but that you failed in your legal duty when transferring household waste.
“You stated within the formal interview that you permanently leave your wheelie bins out within the alleyway which is not taking reasonable measures to prevent this from happening.”
Julie said she was “fuming” but paid it anyway because she felt like she “was being pushed up a corner”.
What are the rules?
IT is an offence to ‘treat, keep or dispose of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health”.
This means that you could be fined or even jailed if rubbish is fly-tipped on your property and you dispose of it properly.
Your council is not responsible for clearing up the fly-tipped waste – even if it was someone else who dumped it on your property.
This means you may have to spend your own money and time finding someone with the right credentials to pick up the waste.
The rules may seem strange, but experts say it deters people from dumping waste on their own land and refusing to pay for clear-up.
The 51-year-old said the council’s response was “farcical” and insisted she “[hadn’t] done anything wrong”.
“The council was on the verge of going bankrupt. It does say on these guidelines that at no point should fines be used to make a profit,” she added.
A council spokesman said: “The environmental crime team is investigating the matter and in accordance with the council’s zero-tolerance approach will hold to account those who irresponsibly dispose of waste.
“We cannot comment further as the investigation is still ongoing.”
FLY-TIPPING
Fly-tipping is costing the UK around £1billion per year and it is regarded as a serious criminal offence.
Experts have warned you could be fined £50,000, and put in prison if someone else fly-tips rubbish on your property.
Under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, if you become a victim of fly-tipping it is your responsibility to safely dispose of the rubbish – and pay for it.
Defra figures show that local authorities handed out 73,000 fines in the same time, down from 91,000 the previous year.
A Freedom of Information request by The Sun revealed that the largest fine handed out was in the region of £20,001-£50,000.
Law Society expert Sebastian Charles told The Sun: “The main waste offence is targeted at fly-tippers and makes depositing controlled waste an offence.
“However, innocent landowners can get caught out too because it is also an offence to ‘keep’ controlled waste on your land.
“So you might be a victim of fly-tipping but also commit an offence if you don’t clear away the waste fly-tipped by others.
“It isn’t the council’s job to clear away waste from private land.
“It might seem harsh but the reason is obvious – it is really difficult to catch criminal fly-tippers in the act and prove who deposited unlawful waste.
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“If it was the council’s responsibility to clear up unlawful waste everywhere, criminals might dump waste on their own land, then claim it was dumped by someone else.”
Sebastian recommends making sure that any gardeners or builders whom you hire take rubbish to a legitimate waste site.
Where can I report fly-tipping?
If you see someone fly-tipping, or you want to report an area where fly-tipping has taken place, take note of the date, time and place of the incident, what the waste looks like and how much there is as well as descriptions of any person and/or vehicles involved along with the registration number.
Both the local authority and the Environment Agency have powers to tackle fly-tipping and they have agreed a fly-tipping protocol to address the important issues associated with the problem.
Local Authorities will deal will smaller scale, more frequent incidents and the Environment Agency will deal with larger scale, more serious incidents of illegal waste disposal, or fly-tipping including hazardous wastes and tipping carried out by organised criminals.
Reports to the Environment Agency can be made using their national hotline number 0800 807 060.
Report to your council by entering your postcode on the government website.
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