Overview
- Loretta Alvarez, a 26-year-old mental health nurse in Feltham, left a cardboard envelope beside overflowing communal bins shared by about 25 households.
- Hounslow Council classed the act as fly-tipping and says leaving waste anywhere outside a bin counts even if the bins are full.
- The fine is £1,000 under a national DEFRA rate adopted by the council, it is not means-tested, and an initial deadline of November 5 carried a warning of possible legal action.
- Reporting says the authority has paused the penalty during a review of the case, though the notice has not been withdrawn.
- Coverage links the case to other contested small-scale enforcement actions in England, some later cancelled, intensifying debate over proportionality and communal bin pressures.