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'Fuming' Julie reports fly-tipping - and gets £400 council fine for her troubles
A driving instructor was hit with a £400 fly-tipping fine for dumping waste - despite being the person who reported the rubbish to the council. Stoke-on-Trent City Council has since quashed the £400 penalty - and instead fined Julie Hancock £80 for leaving her wheelie bin in the unadopted alleyway behind her home.
It comes after Julie - in an interview under caution - admitted permanently leaving her bin behind her home, on St Paul's Street, in Burslem. The council says Julie therefore failed in her ‘legal duty’ to keep her bin off a ‘public highway’.
The 51-year-old is one of a number of residents who have previously complained to the council about the state of the alleyway which is a fly-tipping hotspot. But the council has always refused to help because it is not adopted.
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Now Julie says the council has quashed the £80 fine too - after StokeonTrentLive intervened in her case.
Julie was slapped with the £400 fine in December after reporting the fly-tipping in the alley three months earlier. Council investigators discovered a piece of cardboard containing Julie's address among the waste - and issued her with the fine.
She said: “I was fuming. I reported the mess, so why would I add my name to it? The alleyway is horrific. There’s been a big long red cushion, bags of blood with animal debris in it, a pushchair, and a highchair. I reported it to the council in September but nothing was done about it. The council doesn’t take responsibility as it is unadopted.
“I always take the rubbish to the tip. I’m on first name terms with the lads there. I always clean the alleyways up. Nothing happened until December when I got the fine through the door.”
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has quashed the £400 penalty as a ‘gesture of goodwill’.
Correspondence from the council's environmental crime department states: “Regardless of who placed the waste at the location, the allegation is not that you placed the waste at the location, but that you failed in your legal duty when transferring household waste. You stated within the formal interview that you permanently leave your wheelie bins out within the alleyway which is not taking reasonable measures to prevent this from happening.”
Julie added: “When I came home I was so fuming about it but I had no other choice, I agreed to pay the £80. I felt like I was being pushed up a corner.
"But why should I? I haven’t done anything wrong. What have I failed in doing? I admitted I put my bin in the alleyway. Will everyone who keeps their bin in the alleyway get a fine?
“Even if I put it in my garden, someone could access it. They want me to get a mesh wire fence with 24-hour CCTV in case someone wants to touch my bin. It’s farcical. It goes beyond all the guidelines.
“The council was on the verge of going bankrupt. It does say on these guidelines that at no point should fines be used to make a profit.”
The council has not confirmed that the £80 penalty has been quashed too.
A council spokesman advised: "The environmental crime team is investigating the matter and in accordance with the council's zero-tolerance approach will hold to account those who irresponsibly dispose of waste. We cannot comment further as the investigation is still ongoing."
