Council refuse charges

peetee

peetee

peetee

Soldato
Joined
18 Aug 2004
Posts
6,739
Location
The Toilet
Well Ill do this brief, council charged me £50 for flytipping because i put a bigbag out next to wheelie binWHEN THE LORRY WAS AT TOP OF STREET. - because someone else had filled it up, the bin was in back yard and tennants above us had access to it.
They give me the £50 fine at my door but i rang up and protested it and then heard nothing about it since, now god knows how long later my parents have recieved a letter through door for £282 from a debt collection agency about it.

What can I do? They said they are going to pay it but i told them not too.
Im really annoyed about it as I did ring up and then heard nothing else about it.
Its annoying because on that back street there was always binbags in the middle of the street and even a matress.
 
Binmen are jobsworth morons.
Contest it, how did they know it was you that put it there?

Sadly you would have been better off flytipping the bag yourself elsewhere :(
 
If it went through the court system (and not just the idiots at the council) it MIGHT be possible to do a statutory declaration and get things started again. Just a possibility, i've done it for motoring problems, not sure if it usable for council stuff.
 
councils will do anything to claw money back from good honest people, but if you are some immigrant or pikee you get everything you want from the councils
 
We had the local binmen refuse to pick up one of our recycling boxes because it had one can that had accidentally been put in it (was for glass). So now we're left with even more stuff to go in the recycling boxes with no space to put it. What's the use in that? They only collect the wheelie bin and recycling boxes eveery two weeks as well. It takes the ****. :( :mad:
 
I have posted this so many times before but debt collection agengies cannot do anything or do anything from you unless you lose the case in court. All they do is threaten, which you can report them for to the relevant authorities. If I were you, I would do research on whether the council is legally allowed to fine you, and depending on that, decide if you want to challenge them.
 
Around here, some of my neighbours have trouble with a couple of chavvy houses down the street who keep on putting all their crap into others peoples bins the night before the collection. This meant that some were left open and overflowing and as such were not emptied.

The council told them to "Phone the police and let them sort it out". The police said "What can we do? There's no law against them putting rubbish into a bin that's on a public street"!

Joseph Heller would be proud!
 
Whats wrong with you lot?

You've got an elected member in the council - go see your councillor at their evening surgery and DEMAND they do something about this. You're paying their wage for them to sit about doing sweet bugger all as it is. Get your moneys worth.

He/she will be able to do something, as someone who worked in a council for years I know how much influence they have, staff jump when a councillor yells, whether that's right or wrong.
 
The binmen don't come down our street half the time because the nob-jockeys parking for the station round the corner block our street. I've half a mind to start snapping off wing mirrors or at least cling filming people's cars shut.
 
I am the Cleansing manager for a District Council so will try and provide you some help

Did you receive any type of notice with the £50 fine? If so what act have they tried to do you under?

We do not do anything as stupid as some of the stuff that is going on in the country at the moment but the one notice we do serve is a section 46 of Environmental Protection Act 1990, this part of the act gives the local authrity to basically tell you:

In making requirements as respects receptacles under subsection (1) above, the authority may, by the notice under that subsection, make provision with respect to—
(a) the size, construction and maintenance of the receptacles;
(b) the placing of the receptacles for the purpose of facilitating the emptying of them, and access to the receptacles for that purpose;
(c) the placing of the receptacles for that purpose on highways or, in Scotland, roads;
(d) the substances or articles which may or may not be put into the receptacles or compartments of receptacles of any description and the precautions to be taken where particular substances or articles are put into them; and
(e) the steps to be taken by occupiers of premises to facilitate the collection of waste from the receptacles

In normal terms we can tell you where to place it, what to place it in and how much you can put in it.

Now the way we use the notice is to stop people placing rubbish bags outside on the street a number of days before collection, which then get torn open and spread accross the street etc, or if people refuse to place the rubbish in the correct place to empty. So we serve the section 46 upon the householder after we have spoken with them, so that would be warning 2, once we have served that notice, if they do it wrong again we would then give them a fixed penalty notice under section 46ZA which was added to the EPA 1990 by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.

Now bearing in mind that 1. we all pay for the streets to be cleaned and 2. would you wants your neighbours rubbish all over your drive or garden I believe that is quite reasonable. A fixed penalty notice is issued as a way of avoiding prosecution, now if people in my authority do not pay the FPN we pass it to legal to prosucute, I have never heard of us giving it to debt collecters without going to court.

Before anyone jumps on my back, we still run a weekly refuse collection allowing 5 bags per week and a 2 weekly recycling collection. We have one of the best recycling rates in West Sussex and a 98% customer satisfication rate.

If you can scan what you have received and email it to me at [email protected] then I will have a look over it for you and give you some advice.
 
Last edited:
How does your Council go about dealing with it when you have people going out at 3am on the morning of collection and filling other peoples bins to overflowing?
 
thanks for the above post, incredibly helpful.
Well it was some time ago that this all happened, at my previous flat... i think it must have been about november 06.
its blatently been to court, iv been found guilty and its probably gone up to 280 odd because of court costs.
shouldnt court summons been a signed delivery??

right so let me get this straight, i should have a warning and if i do it again i get fined? well thats what i thought was bang out because they knocked on my door in stabvests and charged me £50 even though id told them why. Its a joke to be honest, i basically havnt got anything to scan etc so is there anything i can do? Im a student and they knew that, so its not like £280 is easy for me to come by, my parents pay my fees etc so this is just more costs to them, its caused a massive rift in our relationship already and it means that im going to lose out on my holiday i NEED that was going to happen within a few weeks.
It cant possibly come at a worse time and i feel like iv been kicked while im down, its distracting me from an exam I have tommorow too. just what i need.


***edit they tried to do me for flytipping, i found this quite amusing and thought it was a windup, its not like putting your binbags out 5years ago was deemed flytipping before we had these wheeliebins.

Bad thing is since they fined me I have spoken to the call out service thing that you ring incase theres too much rubbish so they come and pick it up, so its not like im a repeat offender, Iv found it incredibly useful for moving into a new flat with previous tennants leaving loads of rubbish dumped in the back yard, I left the backgate open and the council come and collected it.
 
Last edited:
Azagoth said:
How does your Council go about dealing with it when you have people going out at 3am on the morning of collection and filling other peoples bins to overflowing?
Click to expand...

or chinese tennants in the flat above who share a backyard and fill up the bin you bring to your back door because you know you're not meant to leave them in the back street.
This is literally one of the most ridiculous things in the world, I cant believe a debt collection agencies wants £280.
If I didnt have a busy timetable(its dissertation time right now) Id go to uni and seek legal advice.
 
Azagoth said:
How does your Council go about dealing with it when you have people going out at 3am on the morning of collection and filling other peoples bins to overflowing?
Click to expand...

You think the overpaid numbnuts have thought that far ahead?

They're that single minded that im suprised they don't get ran over by a milk float when they leave work.
 
peetee said:
thanks for the above post, incredibly helpful.
Well it was some time ago that this all happened, at my previous flat... i think it must have been about november 06.
its blatently been to court, iv been found guilty and its probably gone up to 280 odd because of court costs.
shouldnt court summons been a signed delivery??
Click to expand...

Is that a guess? :confused: Surely, you would have received more than 1 letter...
 
i moved house, i didnt hear anything for god knows how many months before i moved though..
it wasnt really a big deal for me, I got the fine, i rang up, disputed with what i saw as a perfect arguement and even said can you even prove it was me who put the bags there in the first place and they said well you will still be charged probably so dont take it as a shock if you get a court summons. I wasnt bothered about this, i was confident turning up to court dressed smartly and explaining it and pointing out i had never done it before and that I was a student who has a squeeky clean police record would show im not the type, and at most I would be charged the £50 fine and not court costs, due to the fact I have no income and am a student..

Does this mean I have a criminal record?
Im really contemplating seeking some serious legal advice now, im being chased at my parents address for nearly £300, its caused rifts in our relationship, iv got a criminal record probably, its causing me stress at such a critical time in my studies..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom