COMPLETE RUBBISH
I was fined £1,300 for ‘putting rubbish in my OWN bin’ – now I’m taking extreme measures to get back at the council
But photos taken by the council painted a different picture
A MAN has been fined £1,300 for putting business waste next to his bins and is now fighting back against the council.
Philip Robinson, 54, has been left fuming after being stung with the fine despite claiming he generates no waste from his company.
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The CCTV installer claims council workers must have "rummaged" through his bins to find the waste.
But the £1,000 fine notice sent to him by Stoke-on-Trent City Council shows four stacked cardboard boxes sitting next to the bins.
A redacted version of the letter reads that "trade waste" related to Philip's business was found on the footway outside his home.
Philip was later hit with a further £300 penalty when he failed to provide 12 months of evidence that he disposes of his trade waste correctly.
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But Philip is now refusing to pay the £1,300 penalty to the council and has been summoned to an interview on May 17, reports the .
Philip denied the "couple" of boxes were trade waste, as he said he doesn't produce any, and said it was private waste instead.
He said: “When you think of trade waste you think of sinks, tiles. I was recycling cardboard, what’s the issue? I’ve never heard of anything so ridiculous.
“They said I had to produce paperwork to confirm over the last year that I have disposed of my trade waste properly. I install CCTV kits on behalf of companies, the kits are already made up. I have to go to the location and bolt them into the frames and power them up. All I need for work is myself and a packed lunch.
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“There’s nothing in that bin that’s trade waste. Somebody was in when they were outside my house and they could have knocked on the door and talked to me about it. But they went straight to the fine which is supposed to be the last resort. I want them to take the fine back.”
Philip was issued last year with a warning for leaving his bins out for too long and hit with a £400 fine for leaving cardboard boxes next to his bins.
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Stoke Council's website states that cardboard must be squashed and placed inside the blue bins without tape.
It is also illegal to throw away trade waste with your household rubbish, even if you run the business from home.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council says it has a zero-tolerance approach to "illegal dumping".
A council spokesman told the Stoke Sentinel: "We are continuing with pro-active patrolling and investigations.
"Once an area is under investigation and while evidence is being processed, we arrange for the removal of the waste with our cleansing teams.
"We cannot comment on individual ongoing investigations, however, should any fine remain unpaid the recipient will be invited to attend a cautioned interview where any evidence seized will be produced."
The Sun has approached the council for comment.
What is the law in this situation?
If the cardboard waste was generated from a commercial purpose rather than a private one, there are different rules for disposal in Stoke.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council accepts squashed cardboard without tape in its blue bins if the cardboard is private waste that is from your household's own consumable.
But if the cardboard comes from a commercial purpose then it must be disposed differently.
Trade waste, as it is known, is illegal to throw away in your household bin and instead it must be taken to an appropriately licenced site.
All businesses must also be able to produce a record of who produced the waste, where it was from and who collected it, going back at least two years - called a duty of care waste transfer notice.
Stoke's trade waste team can be reached on [email protected].
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