Fixed penalty - urgent help needed!

kamikay

oday I have received a letter from my council stating the following:

'officer either observed you depositing waste/litter or found waste belonging to you left at this location without consent and not in accordance with proper waste arrangements where it caused defacement. The matter has been investigated and I am satisfied that an offence of unlawful deposit of waste has been committed. On the basis of the evidence, I have decided that is appropriate on this occasion to issue you with a fixed penalty notice of £50"

Can I please get an advice? This is the first time i have received such notice and never had to pay any penalties let alone for for a litter.

I've moved to this new area and took my bin out to the place where i see my neighbours throw to. I haven't been advised if thats the right one or not but it clearly shows this is the pace for a wastage such as bin bags. The container was full and was sticky hence I put right next to it. I haven't been stopped by any officer and carried on with my day. I believe due to the circumstances i should at least be warned and not set to pay this penalty.

I heard you guys are very helpful hence first thing i thought before replying to them is to get your advice on how to appeal from it.

Also worth to mention is the fact that the way the have issued me with this letter is because they opened my bin bag and found one of my letters and took my name and address down (they have attached imaged of which letter). I'm not even sure if there was one officer at the time or not.:(

Hope to hear from you soon.

DevCoder

Placing the waste outside of the waste receptacle is probably what they are penalising you for, they then opened the bag to determine the person.

You could appeal but I would just pay the penalty, you do cause the offence.

spacey2012

You have two choices, pay the penalty or go to the magistrates court owned and run and paid for by the same council who gave you the penalty, where you will get no justice just a bigger bill.

HappyMJ

You can choose to have your day in court. The wages you lose by taking a day off work will probably exceed £50 so you'll lose even if you win. It's just one of those things. Speak to a solicitor and they'll probably suggest the same thing too. If you don't pay it it'll double and get even bigger the longer you don't pay it.

kamikay

thanks guys, I thought I could end up first time with a warning? or they don't do such thing?

Valli

The council round here issues these for dropping cigarette ends. That can be one cigarette end.

Probably easiest to pay and to contact the council to ask them when, and where, your rubbish should be placed for collection.
Oh - and buy a shredder.

McKneff

Apart from anything else, never put anything in a bin with your name and address on. Tear the corner with it on, off any letters etc.

Tear the piece with your address on into tiny pieces and put into a different bag or burn it.

This is a great source for id theft.

As for the fine, I would just pay it and learn from it. Sorry

kamikay

thanks everyone for your input. It's such a "waste" of money but I guess the only sensible thing to do now is to contact them and see what they say before paying.

BobQ

In your situation, I would respond with some kind of mitigation, including being new to the area (which they can check) and the fact that the arrangements were unclear, unsigned etc. The notice refers to the proper waste arrangements but are these explained anywhere?.

Its a little difficult to visualise the area in question. Do you know what the proper arrangements are now? If not how do you know it will not happen again?

kamikay

Hi Bobq, I thought of doing just that and explain I am new to the area, no one showed me where to do it (landlord lives abroad and I only seen previous tenants on my viewing day) but I've gone with a logic on where it do it and never had an issue. i live in Angel, London where the famous chapel market is and the container is right behind a big sainsbury parking. I genuinely think that if that officer was there at the time (was empty at my doorstep at the time as it was 1pm on weekday) he would have approached me. My stupidity was that I haven't shred the letter (silly advertisement letter not an actual bill) so I think that was the only way for him to see my details. I live in a flat so he couldn't possibly tell my actual address. From the images I can only see this bloody bin bag and copy of my letter but thats about it.

Vortigern

http://www.islington.gov.uk/services/rubbish-recycling/Pages/default.aspx?extra=5

Above may be of some help (assuming Islington Borough)