by A couple who “wanted to clean up their street” have been fined £1,200 by their local council after clearing “disgraceful” rubbish outside their home.
Veronika Mike, 41, and Zoltan Pinter said the street outside their two-bedroom terraced house has been littered for years – with people dumping waste around the designated bins which they said are uncollected and attract rats.
On April 29, to clean his street, Zoltan filled an old cardboard box with leftover food and threw away the packaging to stop it from spreading, placing it next to the bins in the hope that the council would take it it.
Zoltan said his name happened to be on the cardboard box but instead of saying thank you, a week later he received a fixed penalty notice for illegal dumping and a £600 fine – much to his dismay Veronika, despite her name not being on the box.
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The couple, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, sent a letter to the council signed by several of their neighbors saying Zoltan, who works as a mechanic, and freelance videographer Veronika were not to blame and asking them to reconsider.
Despite their efforts, Stoke-on-Trent City Council stood firm with the £1,200 fine, which the couple are paying in instalments, thinking it would “resolve” the issue.
Zoltan and Veronika, who set up a GoFundMe to recover some of the lost money, said they will never clean their street again “even if the rats come”.
“We just wanted to clean our street and that’s the thanks we get from the council,” Veronika told PA Real Life.
“At first I was really angry and I cried. I’ve volunteered to collect litter before and I basically did the same thing and got two £600 fines for nothing.”
The couple, who have lived at the address for more than nine years, said they have been battling a waste problem for some time, with people leaving household waste strewn around the street outside their home – including leftover food and paper packaging.
“For the first few years it was fine but after that it was always a mess on the street,” said Veronika.
“The bins are in front of our main entrance, it’s disgusting.”
Trash collection takes place every Wednesday morning but the couple said they only empty the bins and don’t pick up what’s around them. Over the years the couple have decided to clean the street themselves, sometimes with the help of their neighbours.
“A lot of people don’t use their own bins, they put it on top of other people’s heads,” explained Zoltan.
The situation has become so intense that Veronika has seen rats, cats and seagulls going through the rubbish.
“I’m afraid to walk past it in the street because I’ve seen a lot of rats and it looks like stray cats,” she said.
“They are attracted by the smell and tear through the plastic bags,” said Zoltan.
“That’s why there’s so much rubbish scattered around the bins.”
At the end of April, Zoltan returned home from work and after seeing the rubbish blowing around in the wind, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Thinking he was doing his job for the local community, Zoltan said he filled an old cardboard box with rubbish.
“We didn’t want to have to look at it for another week,” said Veronika.
He left the box next to the bins, hoping the bin men would be able to collect it.
“I couldn’t put the bins in because they were full, so I left it next to them,” he said.
A week later, on May 8, the couple were shocked to receive a fixed penalty notice for “failing to transfer household waste to an authorized authority” requiring Zoltan and Veronika to pay £600 each.
“There was a lot of rubbish lying around, but they didn’t care, they only found one name on the box – Zoltan’s, and they charged us. It’s not fair,” said Veronika.
“Even though it was just my name on the box, they fixed penalty on both of us. That’s very strange. I don’t understand why they fixed penalty on Veronika.”
They received a letter from Stoke-on-Trent City Regulatory Services’ Environmental Crime Unit showing a picture of Zoltan’s box. He says both have failed in their legal duty…” and states “under Section 34(ZA) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990; this is an offence…”.
Although Zoltan was able to pay the fine immediately, Veronika cannot because she does not have a “fixed income” working as a videographer. She has been put on a payment plan, coughing up £100 a month for what she says is street cleaning.
The couple tried to appeal the council’s decision and said they contacted Citizens Advice but were told the law was “black and white”.
“The Citizens’ Council was very helpful and provided us with numbers to get legal advice,” said Veronika.
Zoltan even contacted his neighbors and asked them to sign a letter declaring they “didn’t leave rubbish on the street” and demanding the council reconsider their decision.
“We wrote a letter to the council and asked our neighbors to sign it, to show them I’m not a dirty person, I’m a clean person,” he said. All of them signed immediately because they all know me.”
After their experience, the couple said they will never clean their street again.
“We won’t do anything,” said Veronika. “Even if the rats come, we are too afraid to do anything now.”
Councilor Amjid Wazir OBE, cabinet member for city pride, enforcement and sustainability, said: “This issue has been resolved and all liability has been discharged.
“We remind residents and businesses that illegal disposal is an offense and that anyone who commits the offense will be charged with a fixed penalty notice.”
To support Zoltan and Veronkia click the link here.
