Council slaps gran with £600 fine over single cardboard box ‘fly-tip’

A daughter has blasted a council after her elderly mum was threatened with a trial for ‘fly-tipping’ a single cardboard box.

Grandmother-of-four Carole Wright, 83, says she took some rubbish to a recycling drop-off outside her local community center in Reading, Berkshire, in October – and claims she put it all into a recycling bin.

But days later, a letter from Kingdom, an environmental enforcement contractor working on behalf of Reading Council, arrived and said she could get a criminal conviction for alleged fly-tipping.

The letter included a photograph of a worker holding a box with Carole’s address on it, alongside another picture of overflowing bins in the background.

However, her daughter Catherine said her mum insists she put the cardboard box, which had contained a new egg poaching pan, into a bin at the Milestone center recycling drop-off.

They think the box was blown out of the bin.

But Reading Council is pursuing the matter, which Catherine says is having a grave effect on her mum’s health.

The authority said it remained ‘fully open to dialogue’ over the claims of ‘extenuating circumstances’.

Catherine, 50, said: ‘My mum keeps saying she doesn’t want to go on any more. She’s just staring at the walls, crying. She’s not eating.

‘Her health has really declined since this all happened. I’m just so worried about her, she’s such a lovely person – she’s the best mum you could ever have.’

Catherine said her mum turns 84 soon and can be a big forgetful – but doesn’t believe her mum did anything wrong.

Catherine said the family originally thought the letter was a scam, but a month later, another dropped through the letterbox.

And, after Catherine rang Reading Council, she was informed that the letters were real.

‘The council were not helpful at all, they gave me the number for Kingdom. I rang them, and I explained – I was in tears on the phone, saying this is really upsetting my mum, because she doesn’t know what to do,’ she added.

Kingdom told Catherine she needed to provide medical evidence to ‘excuse’ her mum’s actions.

But the letters kept coming, threatening court action and saying they had ‘failed to respond’.

Catherine said: ‘She can’t afford the money. She keeps saying ‘they’re going to put me in prison’. I keep saying, ‘they’re not going to put you in prison, mum,’ but she says, ‘it’s still there, I’m going to have to go to court’.

‘It’s just shocking, really. We don’t want to go to court, but we have no choice – they’ve said they’re going to take us to court.’

A Reading Council spokesperson said: ‘Residents have told the Council that tackling litter and fly tipping is one of their top priorities, and we have a duty to all residents to investigate any incidences of fly tipping.

“After a box of waste was found at the site in October last year, further information was requested from Ms Wright, but no response was received within the 30-day period.

‘Enforcement action only took place after that period, in the form of a fixed penalty notice. Further to the claim from the family that there are extenuating circumstances for non-payment of the fine, Kingdom requested evidence to allow them to close the case. Nothing has yet been received.

‘We remain fully open to dialogue with Ms Wright and welcome her assistance to the investigation, which we hope will allow them to close the case with no further action required.’

In a statement, Kingdom said: ‘In October last year, our officers working on behalf of Reading Borough Council identified a fly-tipped box of waste, which led to officers requesting further information from Ms Wright, to which no response was received within the 30 day period.

‘Following that, under Section 34ZA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, a Fixed Penalty Notice was issued. Further to the claim from the family that there are extenuating circumstances for non-payment of the fine, we requested evidence to allow us to close the case.

‘Nothing has yet been received. We remain fully open to dialogue with Ms Wright and hope we will be able to come to a resolution in this case.’

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