West Ken Man Hit with £1000 Fine for Putting Bins Out Early
Left them outside home before leaving on holiday
A shock arrival in Clyde Strachan's letterbox last month. Picture: Clyde Strachan
June 9, 2025
A man from West Kensington received a nasty shock in the post last month when he found a demand for payment of £1,000.
On 12 May, 37-year-old engineer Clyde Strachan was looking forward to going away on holiday. To ensure his waste was collected on the day of his departure he left them out a few hours earlier than normal.
When he returned from his vacation, he found a letter from Hammersmith & Fulham Council accusing him of flytipping. With the letter there was a note from the officer who issued the fine saying he could view a photo of the offending items which comprised six bags of rubbish, a large box and a food recycling bin.
Although he was told there was no formal right of appeal, there was an opportunity to reduce the amount payable to £500 by payment within 14 days.
Mr Strachan says that he carefully placed the waste container out of the way to avoid causing an obstruction. He contacted the council on 28 May asking for the fine to be waived.
His case was taken up by the Daily Telegraph this week with aspirant Conservative leader Robert Jenrick weighing in on the issue criticising the council for its action describing it as an abuse of powers and saying the council was guilty of ‘bullying and coercion. The fine was withdrawn within two hours of the newspaper asking the council for comment.
A council spokesman said, "We have since cancelled the FPN as we agree that Strachan made an honest mistake,"
Hammersmith & Fulham Council last raised its fly‑tipping fixed penalty notice (FPN) charge in July 2024 increasing it from £200 to £1,000—with the early‑payment rate raised from £150 to £500. During the course of 2024 the council’s enforcement team of 72 officers have used over 2,000 fines.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |