Man taken to court after wheelie bin falls over

A householder has been taken to court for dumping rubbish after his wheelie bin toppled over, spilling its contents. Gary Rostron, 34, a care worker, claims the bin was knocked over after he left it out for collection in March.

Officials at Blackburn with Darwen Council disagreed. They issued him with a £60 fixed penalty notice for "incorrectly placing rubbish bags beside a collecting receptacle" and then took him to court when he refused to pay.

Local magistrates have now accepted that the householder was telling the truth and cleared him of breaching Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act.


Photo from here.

Mr Rostron, of Mill Hill, Blackburn, said: "The council told me they had evidence I had dumped the rubbish because there were three envelopes with my name and address on them in the bags found in the alley. Of course there were - it was my rubbish. But I had put the bags in the bin and left them out for the binmen. They must have been knocked or pushed over after that."

He added: "This is penalising people who go out to work and cannot put their bins out minutes before the binmen come, or bring them back in the moment they are emptied.

"I was not willing to have a criminal record because of something I did not do, which is why I fought it. The whole thing must have wasted thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money, which would be better spent on cleaning up the streets."