Bin Owners Persecuted

**teddy** · 02-09-2009, 07:24 PM

£500 fine if you put out wheelie bin on the wrong day
By DANIEL BATES and STEVE DOUGHTY
Last updated at 11:08 AM on 02nd September 2009

Everyone pays: Under new rules councils are fining every adult in a household £110 for wheelie bin 'crimes'

Families could face fines of more than £500 for breaking wheelie bin rules.

Draconian new town hall tactics mean every adult in a household is hit with a £110 fine, rather than just one.

A family including an adult couple, two children over 18 and a grandparent could, in theory, be hit with five fines totalling £550.

The penalties are imposed for 'offences' such as putting a bin out too early or taking it in too late, leaving out extra sacks of rubbish and over-filling the bin.

Prime targets for mass fines are multi-occupancy properties, particularly student homes, where there is no clear head of the household.

In one house, four adults had to pay £440 for failing to take their bin off the pavement on time.

That is more than five times the £80 spot fine that would usually be given by police to someone caught shoplifting.

Chris Kozlik, whose student daughter Zoe, 21, and her three housemates had to pay £110 each to Leicester council, said: 'All sense has gone out of the window.

'All my daughter did was leave her bin out past when it should have been. You'd get less for beating somebody up. Power has gone to their heads.'

The scale of penalties for 'environmental crime' compares with average court fines of £285 for sex offenders, £237 for violent thugs and £286 for fraudsters, although these are often imposed alongside other punishments.

The fines-for-all method follows the outcry over the imposition of fortnightly rubbish collections and complex recycling rules, enforced by 'bin police'.

The Daily Mail's Not in My Front Yard campaign has highlighted the unpopularity of wheelie bins. The multiple fine system is spreading among councils who find it easier to target everyone in a house rather than identify a responsible individual.

It is also potentially highly lucrative at a time when the recession is hitting receipts from car park charges and planning fees.

But councils who have adopted the tactic insist it is necessary. Leicester city council said wheelie bins were blocking streets and encouraging arsonists.

The Labour-run council, which says it issues multiple fines at least once a month, said: 'Our city wardens give letters and information to householders where bins are left outside.

'They follow up with letters or visits, to give advice and explain the need to take in bins. If the situation persists, we try to establish whether there are particular problems stopping people bringing in their bins, so we can advise or help.

'If they still fail to remove their bins, legal notices are sent to every resident over 18 at a property, warning them they have 21 days to bring in their bins or face fines.

'We issue fines only if all these steps fail to resolve the problem.'

Enforcement Manager Yvonne Mackender said: 'We do it to pin down who is responsible for the bins.'

She said officials negotiate with everyone who has been sent a fine notice, and no household is made to pay more than £110.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said last night: 'Issuing fixed penalty notices is a matter entirely for local authorities, and how they use these powers is up to them.'

But Tory local government spokesman Caroline Spelman said: 'This is an unacceptable and draconian abuse of state powers by town hall bullies. Spurred on by Government guidance, clipboard-wielding bin inspectors are hitting hardworking families with arbitrary and unfair fines.

'Meanwhile, real criminals like shoplifters get away with derisory fines. The law needs to be changed.

Source: Families charged £500 for leaving wheelie bins out on wrong day | Mail Online

**dirtydog** · 02-09-2009, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by teddy

But councils who have adopted the tactic insist it is necessary. Leicester city council said wheelie bins were blocking streets and encouraging arsonists.

I got a great idea, why not prosecute the arsonists?

**artist** · 02-09-2009, 07:51 PM

Bins probably still full because the council on strike but still need revenue so fine!

**Fuzzy Bob** · 02-09-2009, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Originally Posted by teddy

But councils who have adopted the tactic insist it is necessary. Leicester city council said wheelie bins were blocking streets and encouraging arsonists.

I got a great idea, why not prosecute the arsonists?

Unfortunately they would get someone like Cherie Booth to argue in court that it's their human right of self expression when they torch bins and wind up with a large wad of tax payers money as compensation for the trauma that they've been put through.

**bretby** · 02-09-2009, 08:24 PM

English councils are always thinking up ways to screw more money out of the public.

The UK rates are high enough as it is (for those who pay) and not too long ago the bin men used to collect the bins from all houses, even from the back gardens and empty them. Now they won`t even accept a bin if the lid is not down properly.

Then some bright spark decided to put wheels on them and pass the work onto the householders, who in many cases have to get up at the crack of dawn and put them out to make sure that they are emptied.

Also most councils put the onus on the householder to recycle the rubbish with a blue bin for this, a green bin for that and a red bin for t`other and woe betide anybody who gets the wrong rubbish in the wrong bin and after all this the hard worked recycling owner learns that most of it goes to landfill or is shipped to third world countries.

...and then there`s the .................

**blackgang** · 02-09-2009, 08:32 PM

Well I guess thats why you see so many Brits that live someplace other than UK.

**oldgit** · 03-09-2009, 02:13 AM

Great sport finding where the councilors live and put their wheelie bins out for them on the wrong day.

**teddy** · 03-09-2009, 07:02 AM

I remember England as a place where it always rained. However, come summer everyone's told there's a drought and if they want to water their garden they must pay for a licence.

You work and many different taxes are deducted from your wage packet. With money left that has already been taxed you are free to purchase things and pay more tax (VAT) or you could invest in a savings plan or pension scheme. Of course, when you want your money it's taxed.

We are told the taxes are for things like the NHS and old-age pensions. However, the money they collect from your taxes isn't put in to a fund to pay for these things, but rather it's used to pay off the current obligations while collecting more money from other people's taxes - a gigantic ponzi scheme even Maddoff would be proud of.

We are slaves in the west

**withnallstoke** · 03-09-2009, 07:22 AM

Once upon a time in sunny England, everybody had a battered and rusty bin outside their home. Most days people came past on their horse and cart and took some of the rubbish away and, depending on what it was, gave the previous owner a small gift (a lollipop or balloon) or a handfull of pennies. Less frequently, the bin gangs would arrive, and between them they would manhandle the metal bin to the binwagon and tip the contents into their truck. Then they would have a cup of tea, and with a cheery wave toddle off to nextdoors house and do the same.
Roll forward 20 years. All the horses were in tins of dogfood and the carts and metal bins were buried in huge holes in the ground. Household waste, as it was called then, had to be placed outside the property in an official black plastic bag with the name and address of the local council stamped clearly on the bag. Only one bag per household was allowed, and only official bags would be removed. Nobody "took tea" anymore, they didn't have time and tea is difficult to drink whilst running.
Roll on 20 years. See OP. Progress eh?

**Marmite the Dog** · 03-09-2009, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by blackgang

Well I guess thats why you see so many Brits that live someplace other than UK.

You got it.

**crippen** · 03-09-2009, 10:32 AM

And don't forget that the council change the days that they empty the bins. If it is a bank holiday week.monday to friday collections become tuesday to saturday .Confused me totally.

**sabang** · 03-09-2009, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by blackgang

Well I guess thats why you see so many Brits that live someplace other than UK.

Ding. Give that man a pretzel.
Oz ain't that much better these days either (cept the weathers better).
I miss all that shit like a hole in the head.

Dan · 03-09-2009, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by teddy

The Daily Mail's Not in My Front Yard campaign has highlighted the unpopularity of wheelie bins

Anything to make their readers feel hard done by. 30,000 children die every day from poverty but fuck that, I had to take my own bin out. And at 7 o'clock. It's a fucking outrage, I tell you.

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