Any old iron?

We have all heard the cry from people going round offering to take rubbish away for no charge. Seems tempting and certain to make your life easier? Think again. Despite councils’ best efforts to make people aware of the risks and to make it easy for them to dispose of excess waste either from their door or at household waste sites, residents are still getting caught out.

The problem is that if someone offering to collect and dispose of your waste then chooses to fly tip that waste, you’re still responsible through the duty of care legislation. Wychavon will always offer residents the opportunity to defend themselves through an interview with the option to pay a fixed fine, but if this is refused they have no choice but to take residents to court.

Just this week Miss Donna Haggart from Droitwich (8 Broadmeadow, Droitwich, Worcs WR9 8SX. Date of birth– 24.12.85) was prosecuted and fined £665 for paying a company to dispose of 9 bags of rubbish that were later fly tipped at the entrance to Chawson Pleck in Droitwich.

Miss Donna Haggart was invited to discuss the dumped waste, but failed to turn up, she was then issued with a £75 fixed penalty fine over instalments. However, she neglected to pay after the first instalment so Wychavon District Council was forced to take her to court where, although she pleaded not guilty and was subsequently fined.

Dave Roberts, Environmental Crime Officer for Wychavon said “We continue to remind residents that they have lots of options for waste disposal and recycling and that getting a company without a license to remove any rubbish from their property is unwise and can lead to prosecution. Taking residents to court is not something we want to do, but fly tipping is a blight to our communities and residents continue to tell us that they want us to clamp down on those committing the offences.”

You can check if someone is a registered waste carrier on the Environment Agency website:

http://www2.environment-agency.gov.uk/epr/search.asp or for more information on Wychavon’s bulky waste collection and other tips on recycling go here.