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Broxtowe woman felt ‘intimidated’ over council fly tipping action for bags of soil

A Broxtowe woman who was hit with a fine for leaving bags of soil in front of her home has criticised a council’s lack of ’empathy’, and said she felt unnecessarily intimated by the action.

Louise Spellman, 40, from Giltbrook, first became aware she’d been issued with a £200 fixed penalty notice – a fine dished out for certain minor offences – from Broxtowe Borough Council on June 23.

This was confirmed by email from a third-party environment enforcement company, used by the council, called WISE, which told Mrs Spellman the reason was for fly-tipping following an anonymous complaint.

The fly-tipping related to three tonne bags of soil Mrs Spellman and her husband had left in front of their home after tree roots along the public pathway had caused a boundary wall on their driveway to come down.

In order to fix their wall, they had bagged up the soil with intent to lay it back out once the wall was fixed.

She said: “I think it’s wholly wrong and a way of the council making money.”

Mrs Spellman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on Tuesday (July 15) that an enforcement officer had previously turned up at their doorstep about the bags and acted in a “threatening” manner.

The bags ended up being removed following this visit. A physical fixed penalty notice of £200 was never handed to the couple and was only referred to in council emails causing confusion of who the fine should be paid to, Mrs Spellman claims.

She first escalated her case to the Borough Council around two weeks ago and had been in an ongoing dispute. She cited a lack of prior notification and delivery for the fixed penalty notice, feeling ‘intimidated’ by the enforcement agent and a record-keeping failure in her ongoing complaint.

She told the LDRS on Tuesday that “nobody seems to want to take ownership” of her complaint, feeling it was being passed between the Borough Council and WISE.

The LDRS contacted Broxtowe Borough Council and WISE on Tuesday (July 15) asking them to respond to the situation and Mrs Spellman’s request for an apology.

A spokesperson for the Borough Council said: “We are unable to comment on individual cases and those where a challenge is in progress.” WISE did not respond.

Shortly after being contacted by the LDRS the fine was formally revoked in a letter to the couple.

Speaking to the LDRS about the revoked fine, Mrs Spellman said: “I’m happy [but] I don’t think it was a particular warm email response. There’s no empathy, no apology, I don’t think it was polite.

“They’ve had to do it because I’ve kicked up a storm – [the council] has only [revoked it] because the media’s involved, that’s how I feel.”

Mrs Spellman thinks the council could have resolved her entire case and complaints if they had given a “sincere” apology.