Legal row with council over waste heads to UN Ex-MP goes international in controversy of uncollected waste
AFORMER Birmingham MP who lost a court battle after trying to force the council to clear green waste has taken his case to the United Nations in a new twist in the city’s “garden tax” furore.
John Hemming demanded Birmingham City Council clear up residents’ bags of rubbish back in 2014, when he was Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, after complaints from constituents.
Locals had complained after Birmingham City Council ended free green waste collection and introduced a £35-a-year charge.
Mr Hemming took legal action, arguing local authorities had a statutory duty under environmental protection legislation to keep streets clean – but judges twice ruled against him.
Now he has asked a United Nations committee to consider the issue under the terms of a convention relating to environmental issues.
The Aarhus Convention allows members of the public to raise concerns about environmental issues and covers public authorities’ environmental obligations. Mr Hemming revealed members of a UN committee would discuss his concerns at a meeting in Geneva this week.
The legal row was sparked when he first made an application in a magistrates’ court under the terms of environmental protection legislation – but a district judge ruled against him.
He then failed in appeals to the High Court and Court of Appeal and now claims he has been left with legal bills totalling about £30,000.
Mr Hemming said he had used legislation designed to allow “ordinary” people to take legal action to ensure that councils fulfilled their statutory duty to clear rubbish but he feared his experience would deter others.
In July, an appeal court judge heard how Mr Hemming had asked Birmingham City Council to clear rubbish after complaints from members of the public.
He told Lord Justice Beatson he had made the application in a magistrates’ court – suggesting that the council had breached a statutory duty – after council staff indicated that they would not clear rubbish.
But Mr Hemming revealed a council truck cleared rubbish the day before the final hearing in the magistrates’ court and District Judge Robert Zara had therefore ruled against him.
However, Lord Justice Beatson concluded that Mr Hemming could not establish that District Judge Robert Zara had made a mistake.
In the face of the £35 charge, some locals had continued to leave bags for collection, while others simply fly-tipped.
Birmingham council staff had offered to discuss the problem at a meeting with the politician and businessman when he first wrote to complain, but Mr Hemming said he did not want a meeting – he just needed to know what was being done.
District Judge Zara heard that the council would have told Mr Hemming that staff planned a “blitz” on the piles of rubbish, but did not want publicity in case the news gave rise to opportunistic fly-tipping.
The district judge concluded Mr Hemming had missed an opportunity to be told about the council’s plans by not accepting the offer to meet.
Mr Hemming told Lord Justice Beatson he had wanted action, not meetings. He said he knew that invites to meetings were a “political ploy... in lieu of actually doing anything”.