Wandsworth council fines Post Reply

[Bovril]

I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this?

I am guessing it isn't unique to our cluster of streets, but probably happening in the wider area -we have had a problem with gangs stealing bin bags and litter from bins in our front gardens on our local roads. Some of it is taken away, but anything not wanted is discarded back onto the street.

We had a really bad wave of it last year and spoke to the local police (to see if they were aware and I was also concerned if the gang/gangs were looking for personal details). The police said they can investigate if a number of people report it and gave us a crime reference number.

Fast forward to this week and it has happened to us again. The first we knew about it was when my husband discovered the contents of a bin bag which had previously been in our bin on his walk home from work. He came in, got a new bin bag from the kitchen and immediately went and cleaned it up and put it back in our bin.

Two days later through the post we got a £150 fine from Wandsworth Council for 'fly tipping'. We emailled the council with all the information we have including offering the crime reference number from when it happened before (and have now spoken to the police and got a crime reference number for this incident), said we cleaned it up as soon as we realised that it had been stolen and was on the street etc.

We got an email back saying pay up or we will take you to court. And something ridiculous about how we should be storing our bins in our back garden, not our front garden??

So instead of trying to find out who is stealing people's bin bags and discarding them all over the place they would rather charge innocent householders for being the victims of crime?

Has anyone had this before?

We are wondering how on Earth we are supposed to deal with it.

[BrianP]

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm disappointed but not surprised at the response of the police and the council. The answer to crime prevention now seems to be DIY. If there are any local CCTVs see if you can get access to the footage. Do you have a neighbourhood watch group who could take turns keeping a lookout? Finally shred anything with your personal details on it. The council does not recycle shredded paper but in my opinion your personal security should trump saving the planet.

[Pepsytangs]

I also was issued with FPN for £400 this January when our recycling wasn't taken and moved across the street. We didn't notice and morning after collection day were fined. Tried to explain we just put the recycling out and didn't notice it hadn't been taken but reply was its our duty of care and failure to do so is fly tipping. Our rubbish is only in bags, we have nowhere for a bin on a main street so regularly have issues and worried will get more prosecution for watse collection outside our control. Really terrible system.

[LaneSW18]

Yes We’ve also had one too. Council don’t want to know snd NSL say pay up, mind you they did give us 10 days from their response email. Just waiting for citizens advice to come back to us, as they say you can appeal even though council say you can’t. There is an interesting article from The Mail on line as clearly someone has gone to the press. They won’t let me post the link, but look it up it’s entitled “nailed by litter stasi for putting out recycling bags a few hours early”

We wrote to our councillor Rosemary Birchill who lives on lyford rd and she has passed it onto councillor Flook who deals with this sort of thing. Just waiting to hear back. Fascinated to see which roads they are targeting.

[ronangel]

Never leave anything that can identify you in bin bags or rubbish for the above reasons.
Always put out the rubbish bags just before bin men come to collect see council website for exact days.
And to help the people that steal bags and council snoops that get a commission on fines put bleach all over contents or toilet cleaner but not both. or maybe garden fertilizer or the like if you have pets.