‘HYPOCRITES!’
City clean-up campaigner accuses council of failing to act on bins – after he and wife fined £1.2k for ‘fly-tipping’
AN ENVIRONMENTAL campaigner cleaning up Stokeon-trent has accused a council of ‘hypocrisy’ - after landing a £600 fly-tipping fine.
Stoke-on-trent City Council also fined Matthew Halliday’s wife Elisa £600 – leaving them with a £1,200 bill.
The couple say they had arranged for a friend to collect an aquarium cupboard from outside their home, in Cornwallis Street, Stoke. They say it was outside the house for less than 24 hours.
Mr Halliday has campaigned against dumped rubbish in his neighbourhood and highlighted the state of the River Trent.
He has also previously spoken to The Sentinel about a patch of land becoming a hot-spot for discarded needles.
Now, though, the council has quashed the penalties after
The Sentinel intervened in Mr Halliday’s case.
The 49-year-old said: “We were giving our friend the aquarium cupboard. The cupboard was left there for a short amount of time, removed the next day, and it had been neatly placed by the house out of the way.
“We didn’t know we would receive two £600 fines for it. Prams and mobility scooters could easily get past and it wasn’t causing a hazard. If you go along some of the streets where we live, the wheelie bins are out all the time.
“The wheelie bins fall over, rotting food and rubbish comes out but nobody says anything.
“The bins cause more obstruction than our cupboard did. This looks like I am going after wheelie bin owners who have them out in the street but I am only highlighting this because of the hypocrisy of the council. £600 each is disgusting.
“If we had someone living in our spare room and the council knew about it, would they have had a fine as well?”
Mr Halliday appealed against the penalties and the council said if the pair accepted liability the £1,200 fine would be halved.
Now, in a letter to Mr Halliday from council officer Dominic Gratty, it has agreed to quash it.
The letter states: “I have considered the evidence, public interest and mitigation put forward in the issuing of two household duty of care fixedpenalty notices. I am pleased to advise that I do not find that your actions were reckless or negligent as the aim was for the cupboard to be collected along with the fish tank for a further use and due to transportation issues was not collected until the following day.
“Whilst we do not condone the leaving of the cupboard on the highway, I have considered that there was no extra burden on the city council in collecting the cupboard as this was removed by a third party the following day.
“On these facts I have withdrawn the fixed-penalty notices and added that you have been educated that leaving items on the highway is not permitted.”
The Sentinel has approached the council for comment.