Ms Burcu Yesilyurt was fined £150 by Richmond Council, London, for pouring coffee down a drain before getting on a bus. She was told she had broken the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which makes it an offence to dispose of waste in a way likely to pollute land or water.
Apart from the fact that she was totally unaware of this obscure law, probably like the vast majority of us, she couldn't see any obvious harm in pouring a small amount of undrunk coffee down a drain.
We don't get fined if we pour coffee (or any other polluted liquid) down our kitchen sink. So why is it an offence to pour it down an outside drain?
In any case there must be many people, and companies, causing serious large-scale pollution that really does merit a fine - a huge fine. Is Richmond Council pursuing them with the same diligence? I doubt it.
The council quickly responded to the ensuing uproar and rescinded the fine. But why was she fined in the first place? Couldn't the council officials simply have pointed out the law she was breaking and warned her not to do the same thing again?
Pic: Burcu Yesilyurt
I think I know why this happened.
ReplyDelete"Enforcement officers" have fine targets to meet by the council otherwise they'll get a stern talking to by supervisors. That's I think the source of the problem.
That does seem like overkill.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between a sanitary drain and a storm drain. Only the product of a sanitary drain gets cleaned up; storm drains go directly into local waterways. But, this was still some official being persnickety.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Your solution sounds so obvious.
ReplyDelete