Friends - the one where woman gets £600 fine after rubbish dumped illegall

A woman who let a “friend of a friend” get rid of rubbish for her has been fined £600 after it was dumped on a country lane in Staffordshire.

Items including a child’s toy car, pushchair, black recycling tubs and old cloths were left strewn by the side of the lane in the village of Tittensor near Stone.

The fly tipping was traced to a woman who lived around 15 miles away in the Shropshire town of Market Drayton. When asked how the rubbish ended up on the village lane she told Stafford Borough Council that she had “paid a trusted friend of a friend” £40 to take it.

Householders have a duty to ensure they properly dispose of any rubbish. The woman admitted the offence and was given the maximum £600 fixed penalty notice.

The litter was dumped on Beechdale Lane in Tittensor in late March.

The borough council increased fines for environmental crimes earlier this year following a government crack-down on the national rise in littering, graffiti and fly tipping.

In January a man from Stoke on Trent was ordered to pay nearly £1200 by a Magistrates Court when a large amount of waste was dumped on a layby in the hamlet of Mill Meece, near Eccleshall. And the following month a 22-year-old Stafford woman was given a £1,000 fine for fly tipping on the town’s Doxey Nature Reserve.

There has been several fixed penalty notices handed out this year for offences including fly tipping, fly posting and littering.

Councillor Ian Fordham, Cabinet Member for Environment, urged residents to check that the person offering to take rubbish was registered to do so.

He said: “Private householders are liable for their waste. It may seem like a cheap alternative paying £40 to someone to get rid of your rubbish - but if they are not a registered waste carrier then you leave yourself open to a fine or even prosecution.”

He continued: “Fly tipping, littering and other environmental crimes are a blight on our communities. They can cause environmental damage, they attract anti-social behaviour, make areas look untidy, and have an adverse impact on the quality of life for our residents. And most of our residents are disgusted when people fly tip in their community.

Tips to avoid breaking the law: 

1.    Always check credentials of people offering to take rubbish https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/search-waste-carriers-brokers  

2.    Ask where they are going to dispose of the waste 

3.    Always get a receipt 

For more information www.staffordbc.gov.uk/alternative-waste-collectors 

You can contact the council in confidence to report environmental crimes at grimewatch@staffordbc.gov.uk or 01785 619000.