A pensioner has been ordered to pay more than £4,500 in fines and costs after leaving a plot of empty land in inner city Bristol filled with scrap cars and rubbish for at least six years.
Edison Bailey was prosecuted by Bristol City Council’s Neighbourhood Enforcement Team over the state of a parcel of land he owned between terraced homes in West Grove, Montpelier.
The land was full of cars which had been left to rust, and other items, and was attracting people from all over the area to dump their own waste there.
Historic street view images reveal the land was empty in 2008, but by 2012 had become overgrown with vegetation.
By May 2014, all the vegetation had been cut back, and a total of four cars were parked there.
At least two of those cars were still in exactly the same place in 2019 and 2020 - and the council acted after writing to Bailey to request he cleared the site.
In June 2019, he was given a Community Protection Notice which ordered him to remove all the scrap vehicles and rubbish, and by August 2019, he hadn’t done so, and so court proceedings began against him.
In December, the 73-year-old from Millmead House in Hartcliffe, pleaded not guilty to the charge of failing to comply with a CPN.
But magistrates in Bristol heard the case on Thursday, February 20, and they found him guilty of failing to comply.
He was fined the maximum possible for the offence - £2,500.
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Bailey was also ordered to pay costs of £1,839 and a contribution to the victim surcharge fund of £181.
In total, that amounts to £4,520. Magistrates also ordered Bailey to clear the site by March 19.
“The land, which is adjacent to residential properties and is visible from the street, had been filled with vehicles and other items and was attracting fly tip,” said a spokesperson for the Neighbourhood Enforcement Team.
“The owner was encouraged to clear the land and was sent a Community Protection Warning before the CPN was issued. The court commented that the council did everything it could, but that the owner had taken no notice of this,” he added.
