Council bin fine powers to be scaled back

The government is proposing to amend Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which sets out the penalties which local authorities may apply to householders who present their waste incorrectly for collection.

These amendments will abolish the criminal offence currently provided for in Section 46. A new, civil sanction will be put in place instead. Local authorities will continue to be able to issue fixed penalties, but only if they can prove that a household is causing harm to local amenity by putting out their rubbish in the wrong way. These penalties will also be reduced from the current level of 75-110, so they are ‘more proportionate with other offences such as parking fines and shoplifting’.

According to the government, the changes will mean that councils will still be able to take action against people who cause problems for their neighbours or the environment by not managing their rubbish properly, without the same threat applying to people that make innocent mistakes.

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman said: Honest, hard-working people have been punished for innocent mistakes with heavy-handed bin fines for far too long. We are now consigning these bin-fines to the scrap heap of history.

We want to see people helping us to boost recycling rates by putting out their rubbish correctly, but bullying them with fines is not the way to do it. This consultation will mean that only those causing real problems for their community will get punished.

System

Under the current system, councils have the power to issue fixed penalty notices of up to 110, or push for criminal convictions and a fine of up to 1,000.

In its Waste Policy Review, published on June 214 2011, the government said it would remove the prospect of criminal sanctions applying to householders who present their waste for collection incorrectly and said it would replace them with civil sanctions (see letsrecycle.com story).

It said it would bring forward legislative changes to remove disproportionate local authority enforcement powers against householders by spring 2013.

To give households some early relief before the law is changed, waste and recycling minister Lord Taylor has today written to all councils about plans to make interim changes to reduce the level of penalties to as little as 40 from this Spring.

Mrs Spelman said: Until we can change the law, weve written to councils asking them to cut the size of penalties so this wrong is righted as soon as possible.

The consultation announcement was released to attract publicity over the weekend, but was squeezed out by coverage of the Concordia disaster off the coast of Italy.

The changes proposed in the consultation will apply in England only. The consultation lasts for eight weeks and closes on 9 March 2012.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com today, Lord Taylor said: We think that the current system is heavy-handed and we want to make sure that local authorities have the residual power to deal with bin problems. We feel it should really be a civil rather than a criminal offence, you would have to be extremely officious to fine somebody under the old system. We are telling local authorities not to use the old law until we are able to make changes.

LGA

Cllr David Parsons, chairman of the Local Government Association’sEnvironment Board, said: Councils only ever issue bin fines as an absolute last resort when nuisance neighbours have persistently and wilfully caused damage to their local environment or refused to co-operate.

Recycling continues to be a huge success story and this is down to the reliable service councils provide and the fact that the overwhelming majority of people want to recycle as much of what they throw away as possible.

Householders need not have any concerns that innocent mistakes like leaving the bin out on the wrong day or putting paper in the plastics bin will land them with a fine.

Only a tiny minority of households persistently leave their waste piled up in the street or wilfully contaminate their recycling which means all other recyclables collected alongside them have to be sent to landfill. In these exceptional cases, where repeated attempts to help and educate them have failed, councils need effective and proportionate powers to ensure the inconsiderate actions of the few are not allowed to jeopardise the recycling efforts of the majority.