Following Stafford Borough Council’s decision to introduce the £36 annual charge to collect brown bins (garden waste) a number of posts have appeared on social media offering to take away your garden waste – here’s what you need to do to ensure you don’t get landed with a fine!
From January 2021 Stone residents, and those across the entire Stafford Borough, will no longer be provided with kerbside brown bin collection unless they optionally sign up to the £36 per bin per year service.
In light of this change, a number of posts have appeared in local Facebook selling groups (and Facebook Marketplace) offering to collect residents garden waste and dispose of it on an ad-hoc basis.
Whilst these services can operate legally, should the service residents engage with a non-compliant service who dump the waste, they themselves could be charged as this lady was – https://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/news/householder-warning-woman-fined-over-dumped-rubbish
To ensure compliance residents should check that the company has an Upper Tier Waste Carriers Licence, these can be checked via the Environment Agency – public registers. https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/index
If household waste is dumped by a 3rd party then you can be liable for a £200 fine (FPN) or face prosecution, known as ‘Household duty of care for waste’.
If you’re thinking of dumping the waste yourself then you could face a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) of up to £400. If prosecuted the maximum is £50,000 in Magistrates court with unlimited fine in the higher courts.
Residents can still sign up for the Stafford Borough Council service at https://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/brownbin – signed up residents will receive a permit to stick to their bin, this will be scanned on bin day when your waste is collected.
