A NELSON woman has been fined £310 for leaving her bins out after collection day.

Shazia Akhtar, of Crawford Street, was issued with a number of warnings after staff from Pendle Council saw her bins in the back street.

Coun James Starkie, who represents Operational Service in Pendle, said: “This woman must now pay out over £300, which is a substantial amount of money.

“Yet this could easily have been avoided if she’d taken in her bins after they’d been emptied, instead of just leaving them on her back street.

“Hopefully she won’t do it again and it will also make other people think twice about leaving their bins out in the future.”

It is an offence, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, to leave out bins and boxes after they have been emptied.

Council staff first witnessed Ms Akhtar’s bins left out on the back street at the end of May last year.

They sent her a letter asking her to take them in after being emptied, but when they reinspected two weeks later the bins were still on the back street.

In June Ms Akhtar was issued with a Section 46 notice, explaining that she must only put out her bin on the day of collection, and take it in again as soon as possible.

But she continued to leave her bins out on the back street and in August she was issued her with a fixed penalty notice.

Despite being sent a reminder in September, she did not pay the £100 fine and she was taken to court.

Ms Akhtar, who did not attend the hearing at Reedley Magistrates' Court, was fined £175, ordered her to pay legal costs of £120 and a £15 victim surcharge.