TIG Post

Tag: Labour administration

  • Student fine £400 for putting cardboard boxes near trash

    Student fine £400 for putting cardboard boxes near trash

    A student was fined £400 for fly-tipping after leaving two cardboard boxes close to a trash can.

    ‘Extreme’ is how Marta Stankiewicz, a student at Keele University, described the punishment.

    On the Friday before her Monday pickup, she placed the two boxes next to her trash.

    Student Marta, who studies environmental science, said, “I was cleaning out the shed and there were these two cardboard boxes.” They were small. I positioned them outdoors by the wall towards the back of the building.

    ‘There wasn’t any room for them in the bins so I just put them next to the bins. This was on the Friday and the bins usually get collected on a Monday. On the Saturday, someone called saying they had reported the rubbish.

    ‘On the same day, I got a letter from the council saying I had been fly-tipping and I was being fined £400.

    ‘The boxes were just placed next to the wall by the gate out in the back alleyway. I was about to dispose of them. For two cardboard boxes, it seems extreme.’

    The £400 fine comes as the council’s new Labour administration has promised an even tougher crackdown on fly-tipping.

    Marta, who lives alone, added: ‘It is excessive. I have no income, only the student loan. I felt petrified. I was scared to answer the phone. The fine is really out of proportion.

    ‘I understand dumping waste is a problem. If it was a sofa or a cupboard I would understand. But it was just two cardboard boxes. I had just put them next to the bin ready to collect. I just want to know why the penalty was so high.

    ‘Why don’t they treat every case individually and adjust the fine.’

    The environmental science student, from Tunstall, now faces having to go to court if she refuses to pay the Stoke-on-Trent City Council penalty.

    The council says fly-tipping penalties are set by the Government.

    Councillor Amjid Wazir, cabinet member for the environment and enforcement, said: ‘Stoke-on-Trent City Council is taking a zero-tolerance approach to all fly-tipping cases. Residents are reminded to only present rubbish for collection on the morning of their collection day.

    ‘Any rubbish left out and not at the collection point will be treated as fly-tipping and the perpetrator will be fined. In this case, the cardboard boxes could have been presented with the recycling collection and included in the appropriate bin.’

  • UK will be less wealthy than Eastern Europe if Tory ‘doom-loop’ continues – Sir Keir Starmer

    UK will be less wealthy than Eastern Europe if Tory ‘doom-loop’ continues – Sir Keir Starmer

    Sir Keir Starmer will assert that if a future Labour administration does not implement a growth strategy, Britain may become poorer than those in Poland, Hungary, and Romania.

    At a speech on Monday, the Labour leader will explain why his economic plan is the “sole game in town” for getting the UK out of the Conservatives’ “low pay, high tax, doom-loop.”

    He will express concern about a potential “brain drain” from Britain if the nation’s economy is not revived.

    The party projects that, based on its examination of World Bank data, eastern European competitors will overtake Britain in terms of wealth possibilities within the next 20 years.

    The speech in central London is set to expand on Sir Keir’s unveiling of five “missions” his party will focus on if it wins the next general election.

    Judge me on whether you feel better-off after five years of a Labour government

    As well as commitments on energy, the NHS, crime and childcare, Sir Keir pledged to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7, along with providing good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country.

    Sir Keir is expected to tell voters that they will be able to “judge me on whether you feel better-off after five years of a Labour government”.

    The Opposition leader, according to a pre-briefed extract of his speech, is set to say: “We need to be frank about the path of decline the Tories have set our country on.

    “The British people are falling behind while our European neighbours get richer, in the east as well as in countries like France and Germany.

    “I’m not comfortable with that; not comfortable with a trajectory that will soon see Britain overtaken by Poland.

    “Nor am I prepared to accept what the consequences of this failure would mean.”

    He is set to add: “I don’t want a Britain where young people, in our great towns and cities, are left with no option but to get out.

    “A brain drain, not just to London or Edinburgh, but to Lyon, Munich and Warsaw. That’s not the future our country deserves.”

    Labour said its calculations of Britain’s wealth decline were based on assuming UK gross domestic product (GDP) — a measure of the economy’s health — per capita continues to grow at a similar rate of 0.5% in real terms as it did between 2010 and 2021.

    That compares with 3.6% for Poland, 3% for Hungary and 3.8% for Romania in the same timeframe.

    Should that trajectory be sustained, then it would mean the average Briton would be poorer than their Polish counterpart by 2030 and less well-off than those residing in Romania and Hungary by 2040.

    Labour said the party’s leader will pledge to “find the courage to take on vested interests” as he strives to “unlock the potential of every region and every nation” if he becomes prime minister after the next election, which is expected by the end of January 2025.

    Officials briefed that Sir Keir will lay out how higher growth will be passed straight to families under his proposals.

    A paper detailing Labour’s plan for meeting and measuring its progress on its growth mission will be published ahead of the speech.

    The nine-page document, seen by PA news agency, says that having the highest sustained growth in the G7 would mean income growing faster, people having more savings, jobs in new and growing industries, along with vibrant high streets.

    Sir Keir will argue that, having set out a Labour green prosperity plan, its ambitions to make Brexit work better and also enhance the British Business Bank, his party already has a “credible, long-term plan which represents the determination of our party to create more wealth”.

    After the speech, the leader and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will host a roundtable of business leaders.

    Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said Labour’s plan for government included £90 billion of “unfunded spending”.

    Mr Hands said: “The last time Labour left office, there was no money left, debt was spiralling, and unemployment soared – something the British people will never forget.

    “Everyone already knows what Labour would do to the economy — with £90 billion of unfunded spending, that would just lead to endless borrowing and higher debt.”