A couple who were landed with a £1,200 fine for tidying up rubbish outside their home have vowed to never help again ‘even if the rats come.’ Veronika Mike, 41, and Zoltan Pinter, 46, from Stoke-on-Trent, had been plagued with bin woes when waste was left outside their two-bedroom property. They say the ‘disgusting’ mess scattered outside their terraced house wasn’t being collected to the point rats were beginning to scurry around.
In April, Zoltan decided to take control of the situation, clearing up the messy street using a cardboard box labelled with his name to collect the discarded rubbish. When he left this next to the bin, he had hoped it would be collected. But he wasn’t given the thanks he was expecting. Instead, he was hit with an illegal dumping notice as well as a £600 fine from Stoke-on-Trent City Council for ‘failing to transfer household waste to an authorised authority.’ To rub salt in the wound, his partner Veronika has also been slammed with the same fine – even though her name was not on the cardboard box.
“I couldn’t put it in the bins because they were full, so I left it beside them,” Zoltan explained. “We didn’t want to have to look at it for another week,” his partner Veronika added. “There was a lot of rubbish lying around, but they don’t care, they just found one name on the box, Zoltan’s, and they charged us. It’s not fair.”
She added, “Even though it was only my name on the box, they sent a fixed penalty to both of us. That’s very, very strange.” “I don’t understand why they sent a fixed penalty to Veronika,” Zoltan noted. While mechanic Zoltan could pay the debt in full immediately, his partner, who is a freelance videographer, doesn’t have a steady income and is now forced to fork out £100 a month for what she maintains as cleaning the street. The distraught couple have since drafted a letter to the council with several neighbors signing it and attesting to their innocence.
The letter requested the council acknowledge Zoltan and Veronika were not responsible for the waste scattered on the street. “They all signed immediately because they all know me,” Zoltan said. Despite their pleas, Stoke-on-Trent City Council has remained steadfast in their decision to uphold the fine and consider the situation ‘resolved.’ Following the incident, the pair say they are ‘afraid’ to help clean their street. “We will do nothing,” Veronika vowed. “Even if the rats come, we are too afraid to do anything now.”
The pair have set up a GoFundMe in a bid to get back some of the money they lost to the hefty fine. Veronica said, “We just wanted to clean our street and that’s the thanks we get from the council,” and lamented receiving two £600 penalties for merely trying to keep their neighborhood tidy. “At first I was very angry and I cried. I have volunteered for litter picking before and I essentially did the same thing and got two £600 penalties for nothing.”
The couple have lived in their current home for nearly a decade and have detailed their ongoing ordeal with local waste management. They claim food leftovers as well as paper packaging are forever being carelessly dumped on their street. “For the first few years it was okay but after that it’s always been messy in the street,” Veronika added. “The bins are in front of our main entrance, it’s disgusting.”
While rubbish collection is scheduled every Wednesday morning, Zoltan and Veronika claimed the collectors only empty the bins without bothering to pick up the surrounding waste. Zoltan alleges staff only collect waste from the bins on their route every Monday, failing to pick up the rubbish scattered around. However, it hasn’t only been the couple who have decided to take action; their neighbors have also tried to clean the street.
“A lot of people don’t use their own bin; they just put it on top of other people’s,” Zoltan explained. The problem has become so severe, Veronika has witnessed seagulls, cats, and rats scavenging their way through the mess. “I’m actually afraid to walk past it in the street because I’ve seen a lot of rats and what looks like stray cats,” she said. “They are attracted by the smell and tear through the plastic bags. That’s why there is so much rubbish scattered around the bins,” Zoltan added.
Councillor Amjid Wazir OBE, cabinet member for city pride, enforcement, and sustainability, said, “This matter has been resolved and all liability discharged.”
