James Dolan is one of those chaps who never say die... he has got it into his head that the council can't force him to take a wheelie bin up and down his drive.
More to the point he says he just does not have room to get it past his car and he plans to leave it on the road.
He says he has found a loophole in the 1990 Environmental Protection Act since it contains no provision to instruct householders to store them on their premises.
The folk at the town hall (in Southport because it happens to be Sefton Council) are not convinced. They say they will take "enforcement action" if he carries out his threat . His street must be one of the few in the area so far not issued with wheelie bins.
But I have to say that he has my admiration for standing-up to the bureaucrats who now use the law to meddle in so many areas of our lives.
Aside from what the law says, he has a valid point. The binmen used to come down our drives or paths, pick up a bin and carry it to the bin wagon.
When "they" introduced wheelie bins it was sold to us as a benefit. We were asked to put the bin out on the road on a certain day and take it in again.
The massage was that this would improve efficiency and keep the rates down.
Then came the re-cycling phenomenon. Most people seem to keep faith with the idea and do their best to separate the junk into the appropriate bines
(At our house I find that it is me that has to go through some of our bin bags to ensure there are no plastic bags with the bottles, cans, cardboard and paper!)
But it is taking it a bit too far now that the town halls have set up wheelie bin police to ensure that the rubbish is sorted correctly. Fail to do it and you will collect a fine.
In some areas over-filling the bin will result in a fine. In others filling a bin too much - making it too heavy - will result in it being rejected.
This is all a "bin to far" and so it's no surprise that people like Mr Dolan are REFUSing (pun intended!) to play the game.
I suppose if they find he is right and there is a loophole in the law they will simply pass another law to plug the loophole.
I wonder who takes out the bins at 10 Downing Street and does Gordon Brown do the re-cycling?
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