RUBBISH CHARGE

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A woman has been ordered to pay nearly £400 for leaving her wheelie bin in the wrong place. Holly Dutton, from Horwich, failed to pay a £100 fixed penalty notice issued for leaving the bin in the alleyway behind her house. She has now been fined £130 and ordered to pay £215 costs, plus a £15 surcharge towards a fund for victims of crime, after the case was heard by Bolton magistrates. Council bosses claim people who do not bring their bins into their back yards between collection times attract arsonists.

Miss Dutton says she received a visit from a council worker in August who told her she was being fined £100. She said she appealed against the fine at Horwich Town Hall days later and only learned the matter had got to court after it was dealt with by magistrates in her absence. Bolton council said Miss Dutton ignored a warning of the 'legal requirement to bring a wheelie bin back within the boundary of a property between collections'. Miss Dutton said, "The only warning we ever got was about recycling. We had kept the bin in the alleyway for seven years because the yard is only 8ft by 4ft."

Bolton council said that Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, it is an offence to leave a bin outside a property between collections. Householders face a fixed penalty fine of £100 or prosecution if they fail to pay up. Council spokeswoman Elaine Sherrington said, "We don't take the decision to prosecute lightly. This case shows that ignoring our advice and failing to act on a fixed penalty notice could be pursued through the courts." (Source: Daily Mail, Nov/07)

Householders who leave their rubbish in the wrong bins for collection are being put on a secret database. A team of up to 12 bin police, who travel with refuse collectors, compile the list of repeat offenders, who can be fined £1,000 if they get enough ticks against their name. Every resident is monitored by the ‘Waste Advisers’ who have the power to search rubbish and report back to a computer database. They are also in charge of ‘educating’ householders who step out of line.

More than 500,000 homes in the Test Valley Council area of Hampshire are being scrutinised by the waste advisers. Binmen themselves are also being trained to monitor and report on the waste disposal of householders. Test Valley Council leader Ian Carr said his offenders’ database contained the name of every resident. Those who put out their rubbish on the wrong day, in the wrong bag or at the wrong time receive a tick against their address and the worst offenders face a costly penalty.

The council is now considering installing computers in binmen’s cabs so information can be sent immediately to the central database. Mr Carr admitted, "We do not tell residents explicitly they are on the list. But we do write and tell them they are doing it wrong. We will impose fines when they do not do as they are asked." Paul Bettison, chairman of the environment board at the Local Government Association, admitted he ‘would not be surprised’ if other councils had similar schemes. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Jun/07)

Nearly 100 people a day are being fined for leaving wheelie bin lids open and more than 33,000 have been handed on-the-spot penalties in the 12 months following the crackdown. The laws are regularly used to penalise householders who break the rules of rubbish recycling schemes. This can include leaving out refuse in the wrong containers or on the wrong day and filling wheelie bins to the brim so their lids will not shut.

However, while such offenders are targeted, the figures for fines show that large-scale flytippers are getting away scot-free. In the same 12 months, the number of fly-tipping incidents rose by 12% to more than a million, yet there were only 883 fines under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act. Local authorities managed to catch and fine only 47 graffiti artists and 33 neighbours accused of making people's lives a misery with excessive noise.

More than a third of the 33,000 fines went unpaid, but the penalties still raised more than £900,000 for local authorities, which keep all the money. The 'clean neighbourhood' laws demand that people leave out less rubbish, which is collected once a fortnight rather than once a week. Recycling schemes demand that families separate different kinds of refuse, to the point of stripping the plastic windows out of envelopes and dumping them in a different container to the paper.

Local councils have warned that council taxes are likely to have to increase to meet the cost of European recyling directives and Whitehall rules against landfill. They also promised to try to bring in 'pay as you throw' taxes on rubbish and more fortnightly bin collections. Some councils have levied fines on large groups of people. In Liverpool, 60 residents were fined and threatened with court because they put their rubbish out on the wrong day.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association, representing town halls, said, "Litter dropping is by far the biggest enviro-crime councils have to deal with. Local authorities strive to keep where you live clean and tidy and will not tolerate people who drop rubbish and spoil the area for the rest of the community. We are using fines and on-the-spot penalties to make sure council tax is kept down." (Source: Mail on Sunday, Nov/06)

Binmen are to collect bonuses of £1,000 each for working during Christmas and New Year, despite having all three main days off. The deal, which unions negotiated with a Midlands council, will cost local taxpayers around £104,000. The payments follow a row between the council and unions the previous year over holiday bonuses. The unions wanted a further £1,300 to work three extra days over the festive period but finally accepted £900. As a result, workers this year will be paid £927 for Christmas week and the same amount for New Year’s week, making a total of £1,854 over the entire holiday period.

This is £486.46 extra a week for two bulk drivers, £386.33 extra a week for two bulk loaders, £505.78 extra a week for 21 refuse drivers and £553.15 extra a week for 64 refuse loaders. The bonuses contrast starkly with other areas. Despite the criticism, Sandwell Council remained defiant that the payments were fair. The authority’s “cabinet member for neighbourhoods”, Councillor Mah-boob Hussain, said, “It is an investment which I believe Sandwell householders will reckon worthwhile in return for a refuse collection service over the holiday period which will be second to none in the West Midlands.” (Source: Daily Express, Dec/06)

Homeowners are being asked to spy on their neighbours and report them if they are not recycling. A free telephone number has been set up byTeignbridge District Council for residents to report anyone flouting strict rules on rubbish collection. Offenders will then be visited by a "recycling sheriff"' who will inspect their bins as part of the scheme. Council officials distributed thousands of leaflets asking residents to look out for people who do not recycle correctly.

Under the headline: "Wanted: People who can't recycle or won't recycle," it reads: "It is now easier than ever to recycle yet 30% of residents still aren't!. Do you know of someone in your road who is not doing their bit? Do you feel strongly enough about it to let us help them? Then contact us free on 0800 7310323 and a recycling sheriff will be there to assist."

The leaflet was distributed to thousands of homes in several Devon towns including Newton Abbot, Kingsteignton and Teignmouth where all homes have four bins each, consisting of separate containers for newspapers, glass, food waste and non-recyclable landfill.

A spokesman for the Lib Dem controlled council said, "The council just wanted to help people who were having difficulty getting to grips with recycling. This is all about providing assistance to people who aren't sure about how to recycle, particularly the elderly."

News of the scheme emerged after one man made a personal protest against fortnightly rubbish collections. When bin men refused to collect John Chandler's rubbish he threw the bag in to the lorry himself. The council claims that John is failing to recycle his waste properly and is threatening legal action against him for allegedly intimidating refuse collectors. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Oct/06