A hairdresser who was fined for having an “overflowing bin” on his premises has been told that the penalty has been cancelled after two months of wrangling.
Brighton and Hove City Council contacted Jonathan Harries, the owner of Shine hair salon, in Gloucester Road, Brighton, yesterday (Friday 13 September).
The council said that he would not have to pay the £300 fine issued by an environmental enforcement officer.
Mr Harries said that he was “really happy” that the saga was over. It was even taken up by the new Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Siân Berry, who said that the penalty was not proportionate.
He said: “I feel really relieved and hope that policy will change so nobody else gets treated this way.”
An environmental enforcement officer issued the fixed penalty notice (FPN), stating that the bin was “overflowing” at 6am on Friday 19 July.
The officer took a photo of the bin but this was taken on the hair salon’s premises, looking out into the street, and showed that the bin was on private premises.
The bin is usually kept in a locked store but was in Shine’s private courtyard only because the business’s refuse contractor was due to collect the rubbish early that morning.
Mr Harries’s initial appeal was rejected – and, since receiving the fine, Mr Harries said that he had bought a lockable bin.
Council officials said in earlier emails that the waste was “not stored correctly and accessible to not only members of the public but also vermin which causes significant problems and increased clean-up costs across the city”.
But an email sent at 11.25am yesterday said: “Taking all the evidence into account, in this case, the FPN will be cancelled.”
The reasons given were
- The bin was on private land
- It was not in the usual storage place but awaiting collection
- Cancelling the fine was a proportionate response to the situation
The council’s cabinet member for net zero and environmental services, Tim Rowkins, said that the council was reviewing its environmental enforcement service.
But it took the council 2 months FFS. Absolutely ridiculous the whole thing.
2 months and only when MP and press got involved. Says it all really
The amount of appeals that are successfully upheld, on several issues, is quite concerning and highlights a really need for additional training.
That’s the thing though Benjamin, the council’s internal appeal system is non-existent, the council generally stick to their guns. The council generally don’t back down during their internal ‘review’ stage at all – irrespective of how shaky the grounds they issued the fine are. This leaves people with the only other option of going to court to challenge the council, and they bank on the fact that people are scared about costs escalating if they do that – so in a lot of cases people feel forced to pay up.
Not sure what stats and data you have that suggests otherwise and appeals are upheld internally at BHCC, or do you mean in cases that get to court?
It’s good that this business fought back, kept up pressure, got others involved and finally won after the council were shamed into having to accept they were wrong. This case is far from isolated though. From all the info I’ve seen, lots of people feel intimated by the option of going to court after the council don’t change their position after their ‘internal review’, so they don’t.
I think you highlight a very important point of there being good representation for businesses and residents. The TRAs do a good job with the latter in my experience, I’m not too familiar with similar opportunities for businesses to engage in the same way.
An Area Panel for business is perhaps something to explore?