Fined £80 for my Christmas recycling... but I fought and won

‘Fly-tipping’

Liz Jenner, 47, a Pilates and ballet instructor from Ealing, was sent a letter by Kingdom informing her that she was being fined £80 for fly tipping after putting out bags of recycling next to her recycling bin. It was the first collection after Christmas and the normal collection slot had been moved back by two days, meaning she had more to put out than usual.

She said: “My friend posted what had happened on a ... Facebook group and there was such a reaction, with lots of people saying that they had been fined for the same thing.”

She refused to pay, and eventually the council caved in and cancelled the fine. She said she supported a crackdown on fly-tipping, but added the real problem did not appear to be tackled whilst “easy targets” – home owners like her– were fined.

“Rubbish is a massive problem but Kingdom don’t seem to be tackling it. The officers in Ealing are up on the Broadway plotting to try and catch someone who drops a cigarette butt. You never see them down here in Hanwell. They are not spreading themselves out and doing the actual job,” she said. “The problem hasn’t been dealt with, it has escalated. I think Kingdom have had a negative impact, they are focusing on the easy targets. I don’t think that the way that they are paid is right, it is a good incentive for them to hand out fines.”

Kingdom said that officers targeted all littering and denied that there was an incentive for them to fine people.