Binning leaves draws £1000 fine

It is hard to think of a more pointless and pathetic set of rules than those implemented by local councils around what not to put in your bins.

Today the Daily Mail reports on the latest case of law-abiding people being threatened for ridiculous bin-based non-crimes:

Community-minded residents have had a ticking off for sweeping up leaves from outside their homes - because it is against council rules.

The rules outlined in Street Pride documents state leaves off the highway should not be put into brown bins because of 'contamination'.

Persistent offenders who break waste collection rules, including placing the ‘wrong’ materials in bins, could potentially face a fine of up to £1,000.

There isn't much more that needs to be said about the stupidity of this action from Walsall Council, but perhaps of more interest is the statement from Council leader, Mike Bird:

'Anyone who has made comments to people about sweeping up leaves is taking the rules to the extreme. We are trying to encourage more pride in the community and this is the perfect example of a lady doing that and she should be praised.'

The very same Mike Bird that won our inaugural 'Bad Boy of the Week' award back in May for praising his council's ridiculously high usage of RIPA.

Not yet forgiven Mike, but a welcome and unexpected slice of commonsense nonetheless.

By Dylan Sharpe

Comments

[john]

Well the UK and Ireland have been voted the worse country's in the EU so expect nothing less! Just is more fuel to the fire and anger people have to the UK

[mrmovie]

documents state leaves off the highway should not be put into brown bins because of 'contamination'

contamination from what? from more rubbish in the street which shouldnt be there in the first place.

i watched a program a while ago about councils not composting leaves collected from the street due to contamination, instead they sent it all to land fill (just a big composter anyway). sounds like a load of rubbish to me ;-) its not hard to sort the leaves from the fag ends, cans etc

i worked in an office years ago which produced a fair amount of waste paper, it was all being chucked in the normal land fill bin. i rang the council and asked if i could have a recyling bin, they said no, the lady on the phone said it all had to go to landfill as it was from a buisness, she told me the council was happy with that as they were getting tax breaks / incentives from things going to landfill. pricks