Bingate

It is alleged that voters aren’t bothered about Partygate but Mr Mustard begs to differ. The Prime Minister of a Country should be of unimpeachable character and the voters who went through so much suffering when losing loved ones to covid are not going to let this go lightly. More lightly, bins themselves are actually a problem in Barnet.

Given that Mr Mustard can fix PCN problems he often gets asked to help in other areas, if he knows anything at all he will signpost the suggested solution. If he doesn’t, and he often gets asked to help with speeding offences, he just says sorry, no can do.

He got asked about a missing bin. Here is the relevant website information:

 

 

Here is the request for help:

I hope this finds you doing well. You have helped me out with PCN notices in the past! Might you perhaps have any ideas about to deal with this? I returned home from being on holiday for two weeks to find that both my black rubbish bins have disappeared-- perhaps someone made off with them. Barnet council tells me (1) they want £58 to provide a replacement bin and (2) they will not collect rubbish from a non-council issued bin (even one of the same design) This strikes me as completely unreasonable and a rip-off!! When I lived in Camden, they just replaced disappeared bins. I would very much appreciate your thoughts on how to deal with this. Thank you very much for your help Be well Donald

Mr Mustard replied quite quickly. 

Dear Donald I think that the council own the wheelie bins, they are not your property so why are you liable if they disappear? You might want to ask a freedom of information question about ownership?* I think the council has a statutory duty to remove your rubbish so I would demand that they do so. You might want to go to your local councillor for help especially as they want your vote at this very moment. 

(*Mr Mustard hadn’t looked at the council website when he wrote.) 

Quick as a flash, Donald contacted Mr Mustard again. 

Three councillors emailed and FoI request sent off. One Councillor already replied! Thank you for your help.

Later the same day, Donald was again in touch (a real page turner this story) 

Even more amazing: Councillor Redacted asked for my number and phoned to say that there is a person around the corner who essentially likes to nick bins. Councillor Redacted (who evidently lives nearby) walked past that person's house this morning and noticed two extra black bins there (which match the description of my missing bins). He said he wanted to explain what was going on. He confirmed that Barnet do own the bins. When pressed to justify the propriety of charging me £58.5 for a new bin, he said they are short of money, that the council want to motivate people to take care of their bins, and that I should think of it as a lease payment! I asked whether I should lock the bins up between collections. He eventually agreed that if the bins were on my property and not on the street, then their disappearance was 'a theft' and that I should not be liable for their loss.

Mr Mustard doesn’t see how the householder can be liable wherever the bins are stolen from, half a metre inside your boundary or five metres outside it having been left that close by the binman, if you are lucky. 

What can you learn from this story?

1 Coming up to an election is a good time to ask your local councillors for help, parties knowing that your vote counts, the only time when it does.

2 You don’t have to pay the council to replace their own property.

3 The council are short of money.

4 You can’t trust the council, they demand you pay to replace a bin which doesn’t belong to you.

End.