Residents fined for not clearing up

Residents who left piles of rubbish in their gardens have been handed huge fines and told to pay back removal costs after ignoring council warnings.

The rubbish included items such as a freezer, chairs, a sofa and tyres with three people now ordered to pay more than £4,500 in costs and fines by magistrates.

The residents, all from Folkestone, were prosecuted in court after enforcement notices by Shepway District Council went unheeded.

Neighbours complained to the council about the sight and smell of the rubbish and officers went round to each property to inspect.

Now Natasha Graham, Gavin Booth and Luke Begg have been told to pay back the council, which removed the removed the rubbish, during hearings at Canterbury Magistrates’ Court.

All three of them had ignored verbal and written requests, a community protection notice and fixed penalty of £80 and warnings by the council they would recover the costs of removal if they continued to ignore the requests and the authority had to step in. A man was discharged from a hospital’s accident and emergency unit after being miraculously cured with a wet wipe.

On a day when Darent Valley Hospital saw huge demand in A&E, a man was admitted after finding a green line running down his leg.

He was suffering no other ailments and was not in pain, but feared he had a vein problem and so was seen by a nurse.

After examining the line, the nurse retrieved a wet wipe and gently followed the line with it.

The line proceeded to disappear, after which the man checked his pockets and discovered a leaking green pen.

The hospital put out a statement urging people not to attend A&E unless it was a serious emergency, with long waits to be seen for those who turned up with milder issues.