A homeowner was told to fork out for a new recycling bin despite claiming it was broken by waste collectors.

Stephen Hussey found the lid had been ripped off his 240-litre green recycling bin when he brought it in from his drive in Mersham, near Ashford, Kent.

The 63-year-old complained to Ashford Borough Council (ABC), only to be told he would have to stump up £34 for a replacement as he could not prove refuse workers were responsible for the damage.

But after he contacted local media, the council apologised and offered to replace it free of charge.

Stephen said: ‘We put the bins out as normal, but when I came to bring them in, the hinge was ripped off and the lid completely gone.

‘Kids hadn’t done that, so it was obviously broken while they were sorting it.’

The father-of-four, who has lived at his address for five years, contacted ABC but received an automated reply.

He approached the authority again several days later, providing pictures of the broken bin, and received a letter from the environmental contracts and operations team.

It said: ‘We do not replace bins free of charge unless it is proven the bin fell in the back of the waste collection vehicle or the lid was damaged during collection.

‘The bins are roughly the same age, so it is not unusual for them all to start breaking. At this time, ABC will not be replacing your bin free of charge.’

The council’s website states bin replacements will only be offered if evidence can be shown that workers from Suez – the waste operator across the borough – have caused damage.

But Stephen believes the system is flawed and needs to be changed.

‘Why would I break my own bin?’ the builder surveyor said. ‘The fact you have to essentially provide CCTV for something which, even if everyone had that, isn’t going to show the damage anyway.

‘You’re just never going to be able to prove something like that, and then on top of that you get a reply with basically attitude.

‘We live in a rural part of the town, so predators like foxes and birds would have a field day with a bin with no lid.

‘They’d end up putting the rubbish everywhere, and cars doing 60mph along here would put rubbish all over the road, and you worry about maggots by the house when it’s not out the front.

‘I refused to pay it, but it’s just a system where people are set up to fail because you just give up.

‘It shouldn’t have got to this stage, and we pay enough council tax as it is.

‘It’s all online as well, so I feel really sorry for people who are elderly without access to the internet who just pay it because it’s the easiest thing to do. But I’ve shown people shouldn’t give in.’

When asked to provide a response to Stephen’s concerns, ABC said the authority had agreed to provide a replacement bin ‘due a mistake made on our behalf’.

The spokesperson said: ‘We would like to apologise to Mr Hussey for the inconvenience caused.

‘The charge was issued in error and as such a replacement bin has been ordered on his behalf.’

ABC chiefs say the replacement will be delivered in three working days, and the broken bin will be removed.

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