The tenants of a Bristol student house have been handed a fine after leaving a sofa outside their property. Bristol City Council slapped the students with the fixed penalty notice after they moved out, which will set them back by £400.
Leaving waste outside a property is considered fly-tipping - and it's on the rise. In January, we reported that a new fly-tipping incident is reported every hour in Bristol.
The Bristol City Council Enforcement Team can issue fines to tenants who leave items outside. And it turns out the tenants could have saved hundreds of pounds by accessing a Council service to remove the sofa.
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Bristol Waste tweeted out the fly-tipping case to serve as a warning for others who may be looking to take a chance like the students did. They have directed students to the Sort Out For Summer guide on the Bristol Waste website, which offers advice for students looking to clear out their properties ahead of moving day.
Local organisation, Keep Bristol Tidy, have issued a reminder on Twitter of a cost-effective service Bristol City Council offer to collect large waste from properties. The bulky waste service costs just £25 to remove three items.
You can also donate high quality furniture, if they have fire labels on them, to local charities who will often collect from your property for free. Keep Bristol Tidy said: "So many reusable items are lost due to fly-tipping which also costs a huge amount to clear.
"There are many free and subsidised options which support social enterprises. If people choose not to take advantage of these options and dump things they are also choosing to be fined."
Charities have previously warned that the UK is “drowning under a tsunami of litter and fly-tipping”, which costs councils, and in turn, taxpayers, millions to clean up every year.
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