Fined for leaving rubbish next to full recycling bin

Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Matthew Hudson

A woman from Cambridge says her local council has gone too far after it fined her for leaving rubbish next to a recycling bin which was full to overflowing.

Janet Bocci, 60, says she has discovered that trying to do the right thing can be an expensive business.

After leaving the recycling by the bin she was visited by Cambridge City Council who fined her £240 for fly-tipping.

Janet says she is a dedicated recycler who believes we should all be doing what we can for the environment. When she went to her local recycling centre in January all the bins were full.

She didn't just leave her recycling in the street. It was in a cardboard box and she tucked it away between these two containers thinking the council would take it away when it emptied the bins.

Janet says she never thought for a moment that what she was doing was fly-tipping.

In 2014-15 local authorities across the UK spent £50 million dealing with 900,000 fly-tipping incidents.

Janet's family helped her pay the fine. She says without them she doesn't know how she would have found the money.