{"id":166101,"date":"2025-06-07T22:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T22:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/166101\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T22:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T22:38:11","slug":"man-who-put-bins-out-early-fined-1000-by-stasi-like-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/166101\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who put bins out early fined \u00a31,000 by ‘Stasi-like’ council"},"content":{"rendered":"

A West Kensington resident was hit with a \u00a31,000 fine by Hammersmith and Fulham Council for placing his bins on the pavement hours before collection day.<\/p>\n

Clyde Strachan, 37, put out six bags of rubbish, a large box and a food recycling bin outside his home at noon in May, approximately six or seven hours earlier than usual, before departing on holiday.<\/p>\n

The Labour-run council accused the lead engineer at a technology company of fly-tipping and issued him with an environmental enforcement notice upon his return a week later.<\/p>\n

The fixed penalty notice offered an early payment option of \u00a3500 but stated there was “no formal right to appeal” the fine.<\/p>\n

The notice stated: “There was one large box, six bags of waste, and one food bin deposited on the pavement and left. It isn’t collection day so it shouldn’t be there.”<\/p>\n

Strachan said he had deliberately placed the rubbish “out of the way on the pavement, tucked to one side against the wall so they weren’t in anyone’s way.”<\/p>\n

Explaining his reasoning, he said: “I said I had put the bins out early as I was not available the next day. It was an honest mistake.”<\/p>\n

The council’s website specifies that bins should be put out “before 6am on your normal collection day, or after 9pm on the evening before.”<\/p>\n

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Clyde Strachan, 37, put out six bags of rubbish, a large box and a food recycling bin outside his home<\/p>\n

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The page warns that “putting your bins out on the wrong day or in the wrong way could result in action against you for dumping rubbish.”<\/p>\n

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick condemned the council’s actions, telling The Telegraph: “This huge fine for putting the bins out a few hours early veers into Stasi-like control of people’s lives.<\/p>\n

“This man was clearly doing the right thing in the circumstances.”<\/p>\n

He added: “Instead of cracking down on genuine anti-social behaviour, the state tries to reassert itself by punishing well-meaning people for tiny infringements.<\/p>\n

“It’s the easy thing to do but it’s counter-productive and unfair.”<\/p>\n

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Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick condemned the council’s actions, saying: ‘This huge fine for putting the bins out a few hours early veers into Stasi-like control of people’s lives’<\/p>\n

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Strachan described the penalty as “excessive, completely shocking and quite unbelievably unfair.”<\/p>\n

“It feels like an abuse of their powers,” he said, noting that he regularly picks up litter on the street and cleans up when foxes ransack bins.<\/p>\n

He characterised the fine as “bullying and coercion” for what he considered a “minor infringement”.<\/p>\n

William Yarwood of the TaxPayers’ Alliance called the fine “completely disproportionate” for what was “a clear case of an honest mistake, not fly-tipping”.<\/p>\n

“Residents expect fair treatment, not to be targeted for trying to do the right thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Councils should focus on real issues, not hammering taxpayers with excessive fines for trivial matters.”<\/p>\n

Councillor Jose Afonso, leader of the Tories at the council, said enforcement officers should be “working with the police to keep our streets safe – not trying to catch residents out on technicalities.”<\/p>\n

He described the “contemptuous and high-handed approach” as “the hallmark” of the Labour council.<\/p>\n

“We thought we were getting a law enforcement team, but it appears we’ve ended up with a council revenue collection team,” he said.<\/p>\n

The council withdrew the fine within two hours of The Telegraph contacting them, issuing a statement saying Strachan was “not a persistent fly-tipper”.<\/p>\n

A council spokesman said Strachan had requested a review on 28 May, explaining he had put the rubbish out early due to his holiday plans.<\/p>\n

“We have since cancelled the FPN as we agree that Strachan made an honest mistake,” the spokesman added.<\/p>\n

The council’s enforcement team, established in 2021, comprises 72 officers who patrol “day and night, seven days a week” at an annual cost of \u00a32.1million to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The team issued 2,270 fines in 2024, according to the council website, which describes them as the council’s “eyes and ears”.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the council increased fly-tipping fines from \u00a3200 to \u00a31,000 to “act as a deterrent”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A West Kensington resident was hit with a \u00a31,000 fine by Hammersmith and Fulham Council for placing his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,257,12,512,14,1259],"class_list":{"0":"post-166101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-sgg","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-uk-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114644484396411295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}