Richard's Good News Story of the Week concerns a Council reversal on fly-tipping fines.
"Normally, for my Good News Story of the Week, I anonymise the constituent to protect their identity. However, Robert, who runs a business in Laindon, was more than happy for me to talk about the problem he faced so he can help other local residents and small businesses owners in his position. A few weeks ago, Robert got in touch and we managed to get his situation resolved.
Over the past year, I’ve had residents and businesses across Basildon and Billericay get in touch regarding fly-tipping fines that they have received – unjustly, may I add. Now, we all want real fly-tipping dealt with by the full force of the law, but what’s been happening is people have been being fined for no good reason far too frequently.
The case has always been the same: a contractor from the Council has attended a property, noted waste that is within its boundary, interviewed the owner, and then issued a fine. This is despite the waste clearly being on private property and, in all cases, not even waste that has been dumped but often just waiting for collection by an approved operator.
One resident just put his bins out earlier than normal and received a fine, and a business left pallets outside which they were still using!
Now, for this to have happened multiple times, there’s clearly a problem. So, alongside asking the Council to review and rescind the fine, especially in Robert’s case, they need to sort their contractor out or dump them.
It’s clear the contractor has become a force of its own. This is not the kind of service that the taxpayer expects, and they’re clearly not going after genuine fly-tipping problems.
Now, whilst we deal with the operator, there still could be people out there receiving fines incorrectly but may not have the knowledge or tenacity to fight it. If you, or someone you know, has received a fine for fly-tipping and it’s something silly like your own bin bags on your drive or materials you are using for your business, then please get in touch via my website here: https://www.richardholden.org.uk/contact.
I’m also here to help for a whole plethora of issues, so please do share my post with people you know so they can get in touch with me for help. Sadly, I cannot resolve every problem, but my team and I will still give it our all."
