Help to avoid a Council FPN after my bagged rubbish was removed from communal Bin

[Happyvirus]

Hi, I need some help here.

 

I placed my rubbish bag in a shared bin that's used by all the houses in the same area. I made sure my rubbish was inside the bin, not on the floor. 

An environmental officer took some photos of my rubbish bag along with other peoples' wastes being on the floor. And one of my cardboard boxes had my name and address on. The environmental officer sent me a letter saying I should fill out a form giving a voluntary statement (MG4) regarding how my waste came to be found at that location.

Should I even fill out that form and to give a statement?
I have sent an email to the officer explaining I have no idea how my waste ended being on the floor. The bin in the photos he took looks like it's been overflown with lots of rubbish on top of the bin.

 

This is what I sent in the email "

 

We received a letter regarding an unauthorised deposit of waste. My partner said he placed the waste right into the general waste bin which is in the picture below. We don’t know how the waste was moved onto the floor. We have a good amount of litter bins for general waste in our area. We never intended to create any unsightly mess. We are also victims of people consistently littering in our alleyway so we fully understand. 

 

We apologise for the inconvenience. We are happy to receive a warning for this and we will keep a close eye out for the bin so no one takes rubbish out of the bin. We will make sure this does not happen again in the future.”

 

But the officer only replied “Thank you for your email.  Can you please complete the MG4 and return this as soon as possible.”

 

Please let me know what I should do next thanks in advance!!!

 

[dx100uk]

then put that in the form 

id simplify it to that you rubbish was placed inside but someone obviously riffled through or removed in again.

 

we have lived here xxx yrs and have never had this happen before, and most certainly are not in the habit of not placing our rubbish inside the many bins.

[Happyvirus]

Hi dx100uk, thanks for the reply. And yes, you’re right I will keep it as simple as possible. Hopefully the council accepts that explanation.

[Homer67]

If it's a communal bin you cannot be held responsible for someone removing your rubbish from the bin after you have placed it in there. In fact sending out these ridiculous notices will just perpetuate the problem. They should clearly be emptying the bins more frequently.

[Happyvirus]

Thanks so much Homer67

 

Yes, it is a communal bin. This notice really made me think twice about throwing my rubbish next time. I just have to make sure my rubbish doesn’t get removed by others  and ends up being on the floor.

[Homer67]

Take a photo every time you put rubbish in it.

[honeybee13]

For another time, would they have known it was your rubbish if you hadn't left the name and address on the parcel?

 

On another thread here we had a chat about leaving personal details on letters or parcels that then go into the bin, because that's how people's identities can be stolen.

 

HB

[Happyvirus]

Hi honeybee13, thanks for the post.

yes exactly! I always made sure there was not any personal details of ours on the all cardboard packing boxes but somehow I missed that one. Just that one time got me into this trouble.

 

I will have to be checking everything what I throw next time.

[honeybee13]

It's a pain but it's what I and other people on here do to try and stay safe.

 

HB

[Happyvirus]

Very true Honeybee13

I will definitely triple check from now on.

[Ethel Street]

Don't say you are happy to receive a warning because you aren't and nor should you be. You haven't done anything wrong!

 

Don't apologise and don't agree to accept a warning. To some council officers that would imply you know you didn't put your rubbish in the bin properly.

[Happyvirus]

Hi Ethel Street, thanks for that! Will do. This is what I wrote 

 

“I made sure the rubbish was placed inside the bin. I do not know how the rubbish got on the floor. Our rubbish was placed inside the bin but someone obviously riffled through or removed it or took some of our rubbish out to put their own rubbish inside the bin. 
 
We have lived here 1 year and 3 months. This had never happened before, we most certainly are not in the habit of not placing our rubbish inside the many bins.”