Section 46 notice

You have not been singled out. The letter and notice you received have been sent out to properties city wide to make sure everybody understands the requirements for presenting household waste.

We also wanted to thank everyone for their efforts because most residents are using the bins properly and recycling well. The colour flyer that came with the letter shows the types of waste that can be recycled in the blue-lidded wheelie bin so we hope this will help residents get it right.

We are aware that this can happen so our officers will always engage with residents to offer assistance and advice to resolve their problems.

The enforcement process itself involves us notifying residents that a problem has been identified, and provides opportunities for residents to explain the circumstances and ask for support. Fixed penalties are reserved only for the persistent cases where it is clear that a resident refuses to try and manage their waste properly.

No this is not the purpose at all. Our aim is to improve recycling rates and keep the streets cleaner and we hope to secure compliance from the early stages of the enforcement process. We are not trying to catch people out.

We notify residents that a problem has been identified, and provide an opportunity for residents to explain the circumstances and ask for support. This should resolve most situations so we expect the actual number of Fixed Penalties to be relatively few. Although technically the council keeps the receipts from Fixed Penalties, the government restricts what can be done with that money, and may make regulations in the future to restrict that further.

As the letter says, we understand that people may slip up from time to time. If this happens to you, the enforcement process involves us notifying residents that a problem has been identified, and provides opportunities for residents to explain the circumstances and ask for support. So please respond to letters from the Enforcement Team if you find yourself in this position, and we will work with you to resolve the situation.

Fixed penalties are reserved only for the persistent cases where it is clear that a resident refuses to try and manage their waste properly.

By making it a requirement that all the waste needs to be within the bin, the aim is to stop the practice of side waste being left out as this tends to be wind-blown, or attract pests and wildlife to damage it. Both scenarios tend to lead to the contents being distributed into the local environment which needs to be dealt with by the council or by residents themselves, who take pride in the area.

The other main aim is to encourage residents to put all the recyclable waste in the blue-lidded bin, so that only a smaller amount of general, non-recyclable waste will need to go into the household wheelie bin.

If residents need additional bin capacity on a regular basis they can apply for a larger bin. Any requests for a larger waste bin will require a visit by a Recycling Officer.