I Was Fined £500 And Threatened With Jail For Putting Rubbish Bags Next To My Full Wheelie Bin

The £500 fine that a man received for placing several garbage bags next to his fully loaded wheelie bin has been slammed as “ridiculous.”

Ben Riley put the four black bin bags out, thinking it would be fine, as he had done the same before while living in another part of the country.

But he was shocked to be dragged into a ‘formal interview’ before being issued a fixed penalty notice by Ipswich Borough Council in Suffolk and faced jail if he refused to pay.

He appealed but has now been told that had been rejected.

‘It is ridiculous how extreme it is. I have been threatened with five years in prison or an unlimited fine if this goes to court,’ he said.

‘Another man dumped a chest of drawers and got fined £200. I just put a few plastic bags next to my wheelie bin outside my garden gate and am fined £500.’

Mr Riley, who also mixed up collection dates, which meant he put the wrong bin out six days early, added, ‘My wheelie bin was full. I’ve only recently moved to Ipswich from Essex. I lived there 28 years of my life, and the council never moaned about a bag next to a wheelie bin before, but here it’s a big deal.

‘Back home, you could happily put rubbish bags next to your bin, and they would be taken by the binmen. I have never been issued with a fine or anything in the 28 years I lived there.

‘I also got mixed up with which bin was being collected that week, so it was six days before bin collections.

‘It’s not like I’ve dumped a mattress or a television set in the middle of the road. It’s next to my back gate.

‘£500 for a first offence is a bit extreme. I have just put general waste next to my wheelie bin because it was too full.’

On February 13, the fixed penalty notice was sent out, and nine days later, Mr. Riley’s appeal was denied.

John Cook, the borough councillor responsible for communities and sports, warned the bags had posed a risk to public health and insisted there would be no backing down.

‘Waste left on the street can cause public health issues and encourage anti-social behaviour,’ he said.

The council works for us, not the other way around. If they feel that people are putting out their rubbish before bin day, that’s because they need to, and therefore the council should employ private workers to clear any rubbish at the weekend as well, because collecting rubbish one day a week is just not enough.

Never leave anything outside that has your name and address on it. Even if you did put it in the recycling sacks, animals can rip them open, leaving your name-branded trash exposed to the elements. Council employees will then walk around looking for these names and addresses in order to fine you because, people, it’s all about the money.

I used to destroy addresses over a worry of identity theft; now, I do it because of vindictive councils biting the hand that feeds them.

Fly-tipping may decrease if authorities emptied the bins more frequently. That would certainly help.

Welcome to the New Britain, the great bit was lost long ago, where, due to the likes of Rishi Sunak and his best money-making buddy, Sadiq Khan, the coin catcher, you can and will be fined at any time, anywhere, for anything they see fit to remove money from you. It used to be called highway robbery; now it’s just called tax.