Council In Refuse Retribution
As if the Fantastic Fours foe, The Mole Man, wasn’t enough of a challenge for local councils to tackle in the UK, it appears the threat of evildoers undermining the bureacracy is spreading.
Perhaps emulating the Captain Planet villain, Sly Sludge, a new contender has stepped out and only the anal retentive, ‘more than my job’s worth’ attitude of council staff can save the day!
- Father fined for overfilling bin
A father-of-four has been left with a criminal record for overfilling his wheelie bin by four inches.
Gareth Corkhill, 26, of Whitehaven, Cumbria, received a £110 fixed penalty notice after Copeland Council staff photographed his raised bin lid.
When he refused to pay he was taken to court where magistrates added a further £115 to the fixed penalty.
Copeland Council has defended its actions and pledged to continue to take action against overfilled wheelie bins.
Mr Corkhill, said: “First I heard of it was from a neighbour who said someone had taken a picture of my wheelie bin, but I thought nothing of it. Two days later two enforcement officers turn up on my doorstep wearing stab vests, read my rights and then issued me with an on-the-spot fine. I recycle and all my boxes are always full.”
Mr Corkhill, who shares a house with his partner and three children and also has a child from a previous relationship, said the authority recently switched from weekly to fortnightly refuse collections, but added that the supplied bins were not big enough to cope.
He added: “I could not believe I had been fined for putting rubbish in a bin. I tell my kids not to throw rubbish away and always use a bin.”
Whitehaven magistrates convicted Mr Corkhill in his absence of overfilling a receptacle used for waste.
In a statement the council said: “Copeland Borough Council will continue to crack down on the problem of overflowing bins, which cause problems for local residents and in the battle to reduce waste. It is important that we all reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill. We can do this by recycling more of what is in our bins, and we would advise anyone who has a problem with too much waste to look at what can be recycled.”
(Source: Father fined for overfilling bin, BBC, 22 April 2008)
So, what this tells us is that a council decided instead of using its financial resources to keep a weekly rubbish collection, would instead make people fill one bin and spend the money to send camera-weilding environmental vigilantees to track down any bins that were ajar. Not if the bin was overflowing to the point of litter hitting the street, but if the lid was propped up.
Zero tolerance, it’s the only thing these dastardly fiends will understand! Next time, send him to work in the slave mines of the local landfill using a hand magnet to find any discarded tins. Thank heavns they arrived in stab vests, because this is surely psychopathic behaviour being displayed.
The Power Is Yours!
Or, you know, use some common sense in that four inches of gap between bin lip and lid is hardly going to make a staggering amount of difference, especially if the guy is already recycling and if the additional refuse is actually remaining contained.
Considering it’s only been in the last few years that councils have actually decided to offer a recycling collection (though, not for every material – my local one doesn’t recycle plastic, cardboard, envelopes, food and drink cartons) and before that were quite happy to load up the landfills.
I think they should open landfills up to scavengers, financial incentives to people who find set weights of metal and glass. Fireworks displays over the methane pockets, or use the ignitable gases to power the council.
You know I think Styx wrote a song about a situation like this it’s called “Too Much Time on My Hands”. I can honestly say that this is the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone being fined for having too much trash in their bin.
That’s not all, Nottingham Council, who in the past had the famously heroic Sherrif to keep the peace, recently had their own fight about bins. One dastardly schemer, with much malice and hatred decided to do the unthinkable: Leave his bin outside his home! (Dun dun dun)
Nottingham Council decided to take a zero tolerance approach to people who let the litter recepticles loiter for more than eight hours after refuse collection, but the criminal mastermind James Cousins decided he’d perform the most devastating coup by constantly ignoring their complaints. He was fined £845 (close to $1,700 dollars). Man fined for leaving wheelie bin, BBC.
Granted, it can be annoying when people leave their bins out, but a strict eight hour trash can curfew? Puh-lease.
Its getting so people can’t even park their cars where they want on their own property. Its ridiculous. I think once its on your property, as long as its not terribly offensive like burning crosses or hate messages, you should let people have garish flamincos or other cars on their own lawns. But that’s just me.
I think there should be a maximum car on the lawn number though, so you can’t just stack them. Maybe make it a ‘whole car equivalent’ so that you can have scattered parts and chasis, but only enough to make up two cars total. I want garish flamingos with motion detectors and landmines.