A Labour council acted like the “Stasi”, according to a London resident, after they fined him £1,000 for putting his bins out several hours before they were due to be collected. Hammersmith and Fulham Council argued Clyde Strachan, 37, was guilty of fly-tipping when he put rubbish bags and his food recycling bin outside his home at 12pm the day before they were due to be picked up.
Mr Strachan wasn’t going to be in his West Kensington home for a few days in May and thought he would put his bins out to be collected before he left. “I deliberately put them out of the way on the pavement, tucked to one side against the wall so they weren’t in anyone’s way,” he told the Telegraph. “It meant I had put them out about six or seven hours before the evening when I would normally take them there.”
When he got back from his trip a week later he found an “environmental enforcement notice” which demanded he contact the council. The £1,000 fixed penalty notice (FPN), with an early £500 option, then arrived. It said: “There was one large box, six bags of waste, and one food bin deposited on the pavement and left. It isn’t collection day so it shouldn’t be there.”
The notice went on: “There is no formal right to appeal, however the council will accept representations from you within seven days.”
Mr Strachan claimed: “I spoke on the phone to one of the council officers and said I was willing to receive a warning but felt a £1,000 fine was excessive.
“I said I had put the bins out early as I was not available the next day. It was an honest mistake. I didn’t feel as though I needed to grovel, but it felt like that was what he was after.”
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick took aim at the local authority, arguing this fine “veers into Stasi-like control of people’s lives. This man was clearly doing the right thing in the circumstances.”
The fine has since been withdrawn.
A council spokesman said: “Mr Strachan asked for a review of the FPN on May 28 when he let us know that the reason he put the rubbish out early was that he had been going on holiday the following day.”
The following day, the council froze the fine pending a review.
“We have since cancelled the FPN as we agree that Mr Strachan made an honest mistake and is not a persistent fly-tipper” he added, claiming officers respond to “numerous complaints from local neighbours about fly-tipping and waste on pavements in this neighbourhood” and it acts “both firmly and fairly when residents ask us to deal with the ugly scourge of fly-tipping”.