Couple fined £1,200 after clearing up rubbish
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cldyny34kx4o
Posted by High-Tom-Titty
Couple fined £1,200 after clearing up rubbish
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cldyny34kx4o
Posted by High-Tom-Titty
48 Comments
Feels like once of those cases where the letter of the law has been followed while simultaneously missing the point of said law
How, at this point, anybody can simply not utterly despise local councils I have no idea. Useless organisations made up of horrid, vindictive, nasty people who would stand absolutely no chance of working anywhere with accountability.
The council is in a tough spot here. How do they know, other than by trust, that the couple were cleaning and not simply dumping their rubbish. If they let this pass, how many boxes of shite can they expect from lowlifes who will claim they too, are clearing up ?
Hopefully it’s remembered by all when Amjid Wazir seeks reelection
It was the council that issued the fine rather than the police. Where do council fines go? Pretty sure from the police it just goes into some national fund so its not like the police have an incentive to issue fines that would clearly be against the public interest, but is the same true for councils or do they get to pocket the fine?
Wow, what a set of wankers that council are. “Fly tipping” is supposed to be emptying a van of trash onto a layby on a country road then zooming off, not leaving a box of stuff out for the binmen. Even by the letter of the law there should be scope for this to be seen as reasonable behaviour by anyone with 1/4 of a functioning brain. Unfortunately Stoke-on-Trent council can’t stump up that much among the whole of them.
This reminds me slightly of a long time ago when we had a really bad winter. I live near a couple of really steep hills which got iced over. My wife was climbing one of those hills every day to go to work, and nobody was gritting them despite there being a massive unlocked bucket of grit right by it. So she did it herself, and was told by friends (luckily no fines) that she could get in trouble for doing so. Even funnier, the day after she did it, the council did send someone to chuck the equivalent of about ten handfuls of a different coloured grit just to say they’d done it lol.
This does not feel like justice served, but rather like some greedy jobsworths in a cushy council job punishing a couple for doing the work they can’t be arsed to pay somebody else to do.
I would not be surprised if this couple started fly-tipping their trash in the local park just to stick the middle finger to the people who fined them. This is how you make people do hurtful things out of spite.
This is bonkers. In Renfrewshire people are encouraged to tidy the streets and put the rubbish in bags which are then picked up by council.
No good deed goes unpunished. Community spirit is continuously crushed by people going out of their way trying to do the right thing either getting in trouble or getting shit on by people then taking the piss and expecting more of them. As a result, people don’t bother. UK society is often actively hostile towards doing the right thing.
So rich water bosses get to dump literal faeces in our water supply, and walk away with hundreds of thousands of pounds, but two people who just tried to tidy their local area a bit are fined £600 quid each?
What sort of wacky world is this?
And everyone wonders why community spirit is being destroyed in Britain. Lesson learned – see some litter, fuck it, the council will come after me if I touch it.
If you believe he did pick up rubbish, but then use common sense, don’t leave it lying around
I live in area with lots of common and green spaces. The maintenance team have exactly the same stupid attitude, I got cornered by two whilst walking my dog and they complained about 20 min about a group of sixth formers celebrating their last day of school.
The sixth formers in question, about 80, had a party and picnic on the common. There was plenty of drinks and music etc, however when it was time to leave, a couple of them produced bin bags (that they had bought with them) and the entire group did a very thorough litter sweep. They did the entire common, despite only gathering in about a fifth of the area and it was *gleaming* when they finished. Not a single piece of litter, even a cig butt anywhere. The bin was pretty full, so the bin bags were double bagged and left next too it.
Quite frankly, amazing behaviour from drunk teenagers.
The commons people accused them of fly tipping and complained they should have taken the rubbish home. When I said that makes no sense, if they had left the rubbish, it would have been litter on the common, so it makes sense for it to go in the nearest bin. They continued moaning it was fly tipping
It’s ridiculous that people have been fined for clearing litter. I hope they appeal
Near my office there’s a bird watching place that has a layby, there’s a lovely old guy who used to go every week to watch the birds and always took a couple of bags of rubbish home in his old focus estate.
He told me he’d had a warning letter from the council about this and also when he called them they said he needed a waste transfer licence.
Fucking imbecilles.
Braindead fuckwit knuckle dragging mouth-breathing councillors should lose their jobs
No wonder the streets are so filthy
I regularly make litter-picking part of my walks around my local area. (There’s a whole community of people who do this sort of thing. See the Keep It Clean YouTube channel for an outstanding example. https://www.youtube.com/@KeepItCleanLondon)
Some Councils will provide specially marked bags which can be used to deposit collected litter next to community bins. They also recommend you document your activities to prevent potential abuse.
Unfortunately not all Councils and waste management companies are on board with this. In that situation I make a point of NOT just dumping litter-picked waste in, or next to, inappropriate bins. I usually sort collected litter into cans, plastics, cardboard, and glass, and incorporate them into my own weekly recycling.
Sad that this resulted in two well-meaning people being unjustly fined.
Does anyone have a link to their fundraiser? Bless them
The Councillor in this case is an absolute prick. I hope residents remember this when he is next up for election.
> City councillor Amjid Wazir said the authority considered the matter resolved.
I wonder what the streets look like where most of the Wazirs are to be found?
Punished for doing the right thing. How often does this happen? Too often. Which is why people become bitter and angry.
Their council needs to be abolished.
The council not waivering the fine after other residents signing a letter confirming the rubbish was street litter is awful. They did something good for the area since the council isn’t bothering, and this is the thanks they get.
Next time package it all up in a box and send it to the council’s HQ.
I’d consider sending them the bill for my services to clean up the street then. That’ll be £5000 please!
Disgusting behaviour of the council. Should be paid back twice the fine and an in person apology with explanation of how the council will tidy the street more instead of years worth of rubbish piling up.
I tried to go “plogging”, running around and picking up litter.
Couldn’t take the bags to the council tip because I was on foot and they wouldn’t let me in on foot, which was sad as the tip is on my running route home. Not allowed to put it in a street bin, as it’s not personal waste and was too big anyway, and couldn’t put it in my household waste as it’s not household waste. Trying to follow the rules here.
That was the one and only time I attempted to plog. Had to give the bags to a neighbour to take to the rubbish dump in their car.
Councillors really are morons.
Maybe the council can be fined for not meeting its obligations?
The binmen inevitably make a mess on my street when they do their rounds so I go and pick it up as it’s only a short street
I tend to bag it as I go and then put it in my bin.
Interesting to note that if I didn’t use my bin then cleaning up would be classed as fly tipping
Absolutely no common sense applied here!! Shocking and those charged should sue the council
The government would have billions if they enforced that in Birmingham.
The councillor referred to in the article is Labour fyi:
https://www.stoke.gov.uk/councillors/28/amjid_wazir
this fella
I really think littering laws need to be ripped up and rethought.
Clearly a deterrent to littering and fly-tipping is required. But this is clearly inappropriate and far from the first story where it appears clearly unfair. Also unfair is if you engage the services of a waste disposal firm and then get fined for the firms activity, or if bins are knocked over the wind and you happen to have something identifiable inside. It’s manifestly unfair.
They don’t take extra bags or boxes outside bins so I do get it. It is considered fly tipping so they got the name off the box and sent out a fine. I wonder if there is more to the story really, people can be quick to believe this kind of sadface article. Around here anyway we can arrange litter picks and the council provide bags and pickers. You then leave them at a set place and they take it away so I hope people don’t get too disheartened. You just have to do it properly.
A few years ago, when bottle banks used to be a thing, our council didn’t empty them nearly often enough, so they often got full. Some people, having taking the time and trouble to take their bottles for recycling, did what they thought was sensible and left their bottles neatly by the full collection bins.
The council’s response? Increase collections? No. Put up signs asking people not to do it? No.
Install cameras and fine loads of people? That’s the one.
Who did they think was driving all the way to a bottle bank just to deliberately fly-tip? At that time you were still allowed to put bottles in general waste so people who were too lazy to recycle could just do that.
I’d have offered a resolution of putting all the rubbish back where it was originally – would that be better?
It’d be awful if boxes were left that were marked with the councillors name and address.
I wonder if there is a kickback to the person insisting the fine stands.
Put in all that effort only to hand it over to people who do not care about your good deeds, they have a job to do and you just made their job harder.
TAKE IT TO THE DUMP…finish what you started.
Disgraceful. “You will live in shit and be grateful to your overlords for it”.
Signs of a broke council looking to grab every pound and penny through fines
So they should put in a FOI request to the council to find out how their council tax is used to clean the street.
Clearly the council don’t want volunteers doing the work, and the workers aren’t doing what they are paid for.
Or do the council want the rats?
>City councillor Amjid Wazir said the authority considered the matter resolved.
>“We remind residents and businesses that fly-tipping is an offence and all perpetrators will be met with a fixed penalty notice,” he said.
What a really stupid response from the councillor. At least attempt to acknowledge it was an unfortunate situation.
Trying to read between the lines a bit, I wonder if the council simply don’t believe what the couple are saying, and that they suspect they just put some of their own rubbish out and came up with the story after. The council wouldn’t be able to say that explicitly.
Enforcement team at the council must be desperate for numbers.
Meanwhile the head of Thames Water can dump rubbish in the rivers and receive huge dividends. The system is upside down.
When anyone says “the law was “black and white”” This is how great atrocities are committed. Not thinking, not caring, just following orders, or what they believe is “black and white.”
I’m not surprised that the council did this, and consider the matter closed.
They should dispute this, as its bloody bonkers.
There must be a technicality in the council’s rules that says “rubbish that doesn’t fit in your bin must be put in clear bags next to your bin” or some shit.
This couple put it in cardboard boxes instead.
Council’s tits got jacked and fine issued.
I would not just pay the fine, I’d take it up with parish/ ward councillor, then MP, if council not willing to see sense.
Surely neighbours could bear witness that this couple were doing the opposite of flytipping?
>City councillor Amjid Wazir said the authority considered the matter resolved.
>“We remind residents and businesses that fly-tipping is an offence and all perpetrators will be met with a fixed penalty notice,” he said.
you call this resolved? Go fuck yourself
In France they would dump manure on the council offices in protest. But here we just lump it and pay the exorbitant fine.