I’ve been slapped with a £400 fine for fly-tipping by the council – but they ignored my pleas for a bin for three YEARS
A WOMAN has been left furious after being slapped with a £400 fine for fly-tipping by the council, despite begging them for a bin for THREE years.
Georgina Searl, 63, has called out the local authority and claims they are to blame after ignoring her pleas for a blue recycling bin.
The gran, from Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, explained she was unable to dispose of her cardboard correctly due to her being left without the blue bin.
She instead piled it inside of a black bin bag and placed it with her general rubbish, ready to be taken away.
But Georgina claims the binmen removed the bag of cardboard from her bin while she was holed up in her home suffering from Covid.
The 63-year-old says locals then began piling their waste on top of her trash, as she watched helplessly while self-isolating.
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She was then handed a hefty £400 fine by Stoke-on-Trent City Council for flytipping – while other residents ” are getting away with it.”
Georgina, who suffers from MS, says she is being wrongly penalised by the local authority, as she was left with no option after repeatedly requesting a blue bin.
And as she struggles to keep her head above water amid the cost of living crisis, the gran says she cannot afford to pay the pricey fine.
She told StokeonTrentLive: “I had Covid at the time and couldn’t go out of the house because I was unwell and couldn’t move it.
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“But people started rooting through the bag and put their own rubbish into it. I was stuck in the house, there was nothing I could do.
“The council then collected it and then I got a fine blaming me for all the rubbish as the bin liner had my details on it. I was shocked.
“They can’t expect me to pay this fine. I have nowhere to put my recycling as I have no blue bin and it wasn’t me who put the bag of cardboard on the floor – it was the binmen.”
Georgina says that she has been forced to live without a blue bin since moving into her home three years ago.
The shop owner added: ” I have told the council this before about having no blue bin, but they just said they would look into it.”
She is now preparing to fight the fine after seeking advice from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.
Georgina fumed: “The council have just said I’ve got to pay for it as they think all the rubbish belongs to me.
“But everybody else put their rubbish there and they are getting away with it. It wasn’t just my cardboard there.
“I know I did wrong by putting cardboard in the wrong bin, but I have nowhere to put my recycling.
“The shop is not turning over enough money for me to pay the £400 fine. I only took home £78 last week.
“I’ve got to find the money from somewhere, but I don’t know how I’m going to do it. There’s no way I can pay it in full.
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“They just say it’s my responsibility to pay, but not all the rubbish is mine. Which I think is wrong. It’s caused me a lot of stress.”
The Sun has approached Stoke-on-Trent City Council for comment.