Residents face fly-tipping fines

People who leave extra bags of rubbish out with their wheelie-bins face a £100 fixed-penalty notice for fly-tipping.

The move by Kennet District Council is in response to EU and government pressure to increase recycling.

Some residents have vented their anger at the plans but council leader Chris Humphries robustly defended the move.

"A small amount of people don't like this - they can be fined if they don't comply with the regulations. We haven't fined anyone yet and we don't want to."

'Extreme pressure'

Kennet District Council introduced alternative weekly collections from 3 July so that one collection is for waste and the other alternative week is for recyclables. "Ninety nine point nine per cent of the public accept it but one or two cannot cope with the change," Mr Humphries added.

"The UK is under extreme pressure from the European Parliament to recycle. In turn the central government puts the pressure on us.

"If an authority chooses, and people don't comply with the regulations, they can be fined £100 for not disposing of their waste properly," he said.

In August, the government urged councils to use new powers to issue offenders with fixed penalty notices under the Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act.