![\"Loretta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_JS386923223.jpg\")
Loretta Alvarez says she admitted to placing the cardboard envelope by the bins but she does not think the \u00a31,000 fine is fair(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga\/MyLondon)<\/p>\nLoretta Alvarez still faces paying \u00a31,000 for placing an envelope next to an overflowing communal bin outside her home in FelthamLoretta Alvarez says she admitted to placing the cardboard envelope by the bins but she does not think the \u00a31,000 fine is fair(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga\/MyLondon)<\/p>\n
’tis the season of goodwill – unless you’re Hounslow Council who are refusing to cancel a single mum’s \u00a31,000 ‘fly-tipping’ fine.<\/a><\/p>\n Over 1,200 people have so far signed a MyLondon petition on Change.org<\/a> calling for the West London council<\/a> to cancel Loretta Alvarez’s fine. The NHS<\/a> mental health nurse received the bill after placing a cardboard Amazon envelope on top of a pile of cardboard next to overflowing bins outside her Feltham<\/a> home in October.<\/p>\n Rather than a warning to say the council considers it an offence which could incur a fine, contractors went full force and issued the maximum fine for fly-tipping – the same amount you would get for tipping an entire truck full of waste down a country lane. The council says its policy is always to pursue the maximum fine.<\/p>\n MyLondon contacted Hounslow<\/a> Council again after our petition reached 1,200 signatures, to ask if they would consider cancelling the fine but the authority said it is “confident” the fine was fair.<\/p>\n Councillor Pritam Grewal, Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Customer Service and Enforcement, said: “At present, there are no plans to cancel the FPN (fixed penalty notice) in this case. Ms Alvarez has admitted to the offence of fly-tipping, and so we are confident that we have done the right thing in upholding the FPN.<\/p>\n “We acknowledge the concerns expressed by Ms Alvarez, and a payment plan has now been agreed between our enforcement partners, APCOA, and Ms Alvarez, set to begin after Christmas.<\/p>\n “While we accept that no one likes receiving a fine, residents expect us to tackle the offence and the offenders consistently. Tackling fly-tipping is a top priority for our residents, who are fed up with others in their community not following the rules and dumping rubbish.”<\/p>\n Loretta was asked if she agreed with the assessment that she had admitted to fly-tipping. She told MyLondon: “I owned up to placing the envelope there as I thought it was the right thing to do as the bins were full and it was a recycling item. I don’t think the fine is fair.”<\/p>\n She previously told MyLondon she doesn’t believe what she did amounts to fly-tipping, and while there was no intent behind it, she accepts a fine for littering would be more proportionate. While she received the \u00a31,000 fine, nobody else who added to the pile of cardboard next to the bins is understood to have been sanctioned, simply because her address was on the envelope.<\/p>\n Meanwhile a fridge dumped around the corner from her home went unpunished.<\/p>\n The payment plan mentioned by Cllr Grewal involves four \u00a3250 instalments, with the first understood to be due in February. MyLondon<\/a> is still calling for the fine to be completely scrapped as we dispute the idea that residents expect to see the council issuing \u00a31,000 penalties in the first instance for an innocent mistake, while genuinely fly-tipped fridges and piles of waste go unpunished.<\/p>\n If you agree, please sign our petition<\/a> and email Cllr Grewal, who oversees enforcement for the council, at pritam.grewal@hounslow.gov.uk<\/p>\n