Fine For Fly-Tipping Resident

A Steeple Morden man has been fined after rubbish from his address was found dumped in a country lane in Guilden Morden.

Although the man didn’t dump the waste himself, when interviewed by South Cambridgeshire District Council he admitted to paying cash to another person who had “turned up” outside his house and asked if he had waste to remove.
 
The cardboard boxes were dumped in Trap Road, Guilden Morden, in December and reported by a passer-by who was out walking. The site was visited by the council’s Environmental Team who found a delivery label attached to one of the boxes which identified the address of the house from which it came.
 
The resident was interviewed under caution and fully admitted not making any checks on whether the person who took the waste was licensed to take or carry such items, and therefore he had breached his ‘duty of care’ with regards to household waste. A fixed penalty notice of £400 was issued.
 
Lead Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Licensing Cllr Brian Milnes said: “Once again, we need to emphasise that all waste being removed from household addresses needs to be handed to waste collectors or carriers who are licensed by the Environment Agency. This is easy to check via the Environment Agency’s website. If it is later dumped, then residents must be able to show they have taken ‘all necessary precautions and checks as is practicable’ to ensure it is not illegally fly tipped, otherwise they can be prosecuted and face a potentially unlimited fine.
 
“We will always act immediately to track down whoever fly-tips in our countryside and that is exactly what we have done here with our Environmental Team doing an excellent job to find the source of the household rubbish. We all have a shared responsibility to look after our District and my personal thanks go to those members of the public who report fly-tipping. Leaving items beside street bins or recycling banks, on the floor of communal bin areas or outside closed recycling centres and charity shops, is all fly-tipping. So please dispose of your waste responsibly and report fly-tipping you come across to the Council so we can investigate.”