Council bin rules a load of rubbish
HEAVY-handed attitudes over household rubbish collections are beginning to overflow into stupidity.
Take the ridiculous case of a reader called Rosie, who feared landing in jail over a breach of council rubbish regulations.
Last month Rosie left rubbish out for collection, as she does every week. But a heavy snowfall meant the collection was cancelled.
She was going to her son’s for the remainder of December so left her wheelie bin and two bin bags on the street ready for when collections restarted.
Criminal
Rosie came home on January 2 and was surprised to see that although her wheelie bin had been emptied the two bin bags next to it had been left.
They had been ripped apart and rubbish was spilled on the path.
In the post she had a “warning” letter from the council which said the rubbish left outside her house was having a detrimental effect on surrounding houses and the environment.
It told her to remove the rubbish, return her wheelie bin to a suitable place within her own property – as it had been left on a public footpath – and in future leave rubbish out only on the day of collection.
It went on to say she will be i ssued with a Community Protection Notice, which if ignored, will be a criminal offence. Another letter sent two days later said a CPN was being issued because she had ignored the warning letter.
But she hadn’t ignored it, she was away from her home, in Newcastle, and when she returned she cleared the rubbish up.
Local councils have the legal authority to take these steps but, in my opinion, Rosie’s case did not warrant this measure.
The problem was caused by the rubbish collection cancellation and then the local authority refusing to take the bags. The problem persisted because Rosie was away.
CPNs are normally reserved for fly tippers, noise polluting neighbours and graffiti vandals. Rosie certainly doesn’t fall into any of these categories.
Thankfully sense has prevailed and no further action has been taken against her.
But be warned, local authorities can be shockingly strict when it comes to refuse collection and they have laws and sanctions they are clearly not shy about using.