A young mum-of-three is furious that she has been slapped with a £400 fine for leaving cardboard outside her house for recycling.
Harley Edwards, from Paignton, said she had been penalised for following instructions by Torbay Council to leave recycling out until it is collected due to delays caused by the Covid 'pingdemic' and driver shortages.
But she said she was shocked when a council officer arrived at her home, pointing a camera at her and filmed her as he gave her the £400 Fixed Penalty Notice.
The 26-year-old claims the officer was intimidating and patronising and an appeal she lodged against the fine was rejected.
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Harley told Devon Live the cardboard was too big to go in her black recycling box so she tucked it behind the box on the pavement outside her home.
But when the recycling was not collected overnight, she took the bin back into a side alley and had to leave the cardboard which had collapsed when it rained.
She said when the council officer arrived and she realised she was about to get fined, she immediately offered to bag up the wet cardboard and move it.
"It wasn't my fault it wasn't collected. It's not flytipping," she said.
Earlier in the year a spokesman for Torbay Council said in an official statement: "SWISCo are working hard to catch up and we are asking people to please leave their bins out until they are collected."
Harley explained that she cannot leave her recycling box out on the pavement because people throw dog mess in it.
She said: "They have declined my appeal. As a gesture of goodwill they have extended the time I have to pay to the maximum 12 weeks. But I still can't afford it.
"I'm a single mum. They said it was my responsibility to squash the cardboard up in an appropriate container.
"Also, they said I should have rung and told them it hadn't been collected after 6pm on the day when it was supposed to be taken.
"The council were telling people if their recycling isn't collected you were supposed to leave it there until the bin men came.
"I genuinely thought I was doing what the council told everybody to do.
"Never in my life have I heard such a thing. The bin men have been really unreliable and haven’t been collecting rubbish on time which isn’t a problem, but now I’m being penalised because my rubbish hasn’t been collected.
"I'm a tidy and respectable person who looks after my house. I want to warn other people about this."
Torbay Council has been contacted several times for a comment.
