Council warns against leaving bins in street

From the The Oxford Times, first published Monday 11th Aug 2008.

Householders have been warned not to leave their waste bins out in the street, after an Oxford woman was fined £350.

Charlotte Aspel, of Wellington Street, Jericho, was the first person to be taken to court for the offence by Oxford City Council, after she repeatedly left her bin out between rubbish collections.

Ms Aspel was first sent a legal notice in May last year ordering her to take her wheelie bin off the street - after she ignored two warning letters.

She was caught again in June and August last year. She claimed her garden was being renovated and she had nowhere to store the bin.

But when her bin was seen on the street twice this February, she was issued with a fixed penalty notice and a £100 fine - which she did not pay, so the council took her to court.

Public health team manager Ian Wright said: "We had given Charlotte Aspel plenty of opportunity to comply with the notice that we served on her and she also had two warning letters before that.

"There were also two occasions the bin was left there and we asked her to take it in and we could have fined her at that point, so it really was a last resort.

"When our reasonable requests for co-operation with the recycling scheme are blatantly ignored, we will take tough action."

Mr Wright said: "What we say is you can put your waste out for collection no sooner than 6pm on the day before it's due.

"We would expect it to be off the street the following day. There's no need to leave it on the street for days on end."

Ms Aspel failed to attend the hearing at Oxford Magistrates' Court on July 28 and was convicted and fined in her absence for failing to comply with a legal notice for causing a nuisance on the pavement outside her house.

When contacted, Ms Aspel refused to comment. Her partner Simon Kennedy said: "I think it's a bit stupid. You can't fine someone for putting her rubbish out.

"At the time, she was having her back garden done, so she couldn't put it out there and you can't leave bags of rubbish in the kitchen when you have got two children. It's legalised robbery."

Mr Wright said it was the third fixed penalty notice the council had issued over bins left in streets, but the other recipients paid the fine.

Since April, the council has received 1,783 complaints about rubbish problems, of which 15 were about bins left in streets.

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