{"id":228546,"date":"2025-07-01T06:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T06:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228546\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T06:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T06:04:10","slug":"builder-refuses-to-pay-500-fly-tipping-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228546\/","title":{"rendered":"Builder refuses to pay \u00a3500 fly-tipping penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FPN was issued under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990., external<\/a><\/p>\n

It claims Mr Brown committed an offence of fly-tipping.<\/p>\n

However, Michael Orlik, an independent solicitor who specialises in highways, told the BBC that the FPN had been issued incorrectly.<\/p>\n

“It has been issued because the builder is alleged to have deposited waste unlawfully, contrary to the Environmental Protection Act, but under section 75, external<\/a>, waste means any substance or object which the holder discards,” said Mr Orlik.<\/p>\n

“Clearly the builder has not discarded these bags, so it’s not waste.”<\/p>\n

Mr Orlik said Mr Brown should appeal against the FPN.<\/p>\n

“They should cancel it having found out their mistake,” said Mr Orlik.<\/p>\n

If Mr Brown does not pay, he could be prosecuted and taken to court, where his case would be heard before a district judge, or two or three lay magistrates.<\/p>\n

“That’s where he would say ‘I’m not going to pay it, I’m not liable to pay it, you’ve got to prove beyond reasonable doubt that this is an offence, and that I discarded it, but I haven’t discarded it, I’m using it’,” said Mr Orlik.<\/p>\n

“No solicitor can ever forecast a judge, but I think it’s most unlikely there would be a conviction, and the charge would be dismissed.”<\/p>\n

Mr Orlik said leaving building materials on a grass verge could be an offence under the Highways Act 1980, but only the highway authority could enforce this.<\/p>\n

This would be Nottinghamshire County Council, rather than Broxtowe Borough Council.<\/p>\n

“A highway inspector could arrive on the site under section 149 of the Highways Act 1980, external<\/a> and say to the builder, ‘please remove this, it’s a nuisance’,” said Mr Orlik.<\/p>\n

“It’s hardly a nuisance, because the photograph shows that there’s a carriageway, a footway, and a verge, and people are unlikely to walk on the verge so it’s not a nuisance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FPN was issued under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990., external It claims Mr Brown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-228546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114776471327560854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228546","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=228546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}