A consultation has been launched to stop councils imposing ‘bin fines’ of up to £1,000 on households that overfill their bins or accidentally leave their rubbish out on the wrong day.

The move would mean that fines could only be permitted if the local authority can prove that a household is causing ‘harm to local amenity’ by putting out their rubbish in the wrong way. Councils can still take action against people who cause problems for their neighbours or the environment by not managing their rubbish properly, without the same threat applying to people that make innocent mistakes.

Under the current system, councils have the power to issue fixed penalty notices of up to £110, or push for criminal convictions and a fine of up to £1,000.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said: “We want to see people helping us to boost recycling rates by putting out their rubbish correctly, but bullying them with fines is not the way to do it. This consultation will mean that only those causing real problems for their community will get punished.”

To give households some early relief before the law is changed, Defra has written to all councils about plans to make interim changes to reduce the level of penalties to as little as £40 from this Spring.

The consultation is open until 9 March 2012.

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