Today we heard all about the woman from Hove who’s just been landed with a £600 fine for dumping an empty cardboard box in the wrong bin!

Alison Mapletoft, 39, sells homemade cushions and scarves from her home.

The offending item was a large square box which had contained cushions and delivered to a PO box used by her business. The empty box was broken up by her husband and disposed of in a communal recycling bin.

Apparently putting a box with a business address on it in a domestic bin is an offence carrying an automatic £300 fine for fly tipping. But Mrs Mabletoft then attracted another £300 fine for not having a business waste disposal contract in place.

With there being no appeals process, her only option was to pay the fine, failing which she would be prosecuted and taken to court.

Brighton and Hove City Council said: “Businesses, including those operating from home or mobile traders, are required by law to dispose of their own recycling and refuse as it is business waste.”

So there!

Obviously this was not the kind of civil disobedience which would have faced the early recruits to the Essex police force, but Margaret Mills had some revelations about those early recruits, which she divulged during our “BYGONES” feature today.

Listen again here to what Margaret had to say on this subject: –

See you again next week,
Scott