Woman fined £400 for flytipping after 'donating' microwave

The city council fined Erika Cummings after she was caught on CCTV leaving the kitchen appliance on the ground at the Hollingbury recycling point in Ditchling Road last month.

The recycling point has bins where people can leave plastic bottles, food tins, drink cans, mixed paper and cardboard and glass bottles but not commercial waste. She was fined when she left a microwave.

But the 62-year-old told The Argus that she has been "treated like a criminal" for trying to give the microwave away.

Erika at the recycling point in Ditchling Road

Mrs Cummings said she left the appliance by the clothes bank with a "help yourself" note attached to it.

It is not known if the note was still attached when the microwave was discovered by the city council.

She said: "I feel criminalised.

"I do understand zero-tolerance but this is really heavy-handed.

"I wasn't dumping anything.

"The punishment has to fit the crime. If I was a flytipper then yes, fine me.

"It was in broad daylight, I made my car visible and I live two minutes around the corner.

"If I was fly tipping I could have walked around at night and nobody would be the wiser.

"The joke is that I was on my way to the tip but decided to stop and leave the bits for donation.

"Brighton and Hove City Council have gone too far this time."

The microwave

In March, Brighton and Hove City Council revealed 851 flytippers were caught this year with fines totalling£343,000.

Its new CCTV cameras, installed last year, have helped catch 124 people dumping their unwanted rubbish on our streets, public land and open spaces, with fines adding up to more than £50,000.

The other 727 flytippers have been caught by its environmental enforcement officers, often with the help of residents fed up with others disposing of their waste illegally and creating an environmental eyesore.

READ MORE >> Fly-tippers strike six times a day in Brighton and Hove

Brighton and Hove City Council said the act was a "simple case of flytipping" in an area that is "very well" signposted.

A council spokesman said: “The person was caught on CCTV leaving an unwanted microwave and a piece of wooden shelving at the Hollingbury recycling bins in Ditchling Road on March 28.

“This is a simple case of fly-tipping and the fine for fly-tipping is £400.

"The site is very well signposted and clearly shows these items are not allowed to be left there.

“Fly-tipping is a blight on our city and makes it look grubby, unloved and uncared for.

“Leaving unwanted items in the hope someone takes them away, so called ‘street treasure’ – whether there is a note on the item or not - is still fly-tipping and those caught will receive the £400 fine.

“If someone no longer wants an item they have, there are many ways to give items away for free like Gumtree, Freegle or Facebook Marketplace. They can also be taken to one of our two household waste recycling sites and left there.

“There is no excuse for fly-tipping, and no reason to do it.”