Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Street enforcement for home business waste
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Wow, this sounds very odd. First, given all the real enforcement issues there are to be dealt with, it's hard to understand the focus on this issue. Secondly, I'm going to try and get the facts from the Council on what teh rues are. Are you creating much rubbish ?
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Permalink Reply by smileygirl2010 on
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no not really - i run a really small interior design co from home, they found a letter addressed to my co, and some fabric cuttings. I just spoke to the council, and even they sounded unclear saying i could have put it in the recycling bin, but then he changed his mind half way through the conversation - if you could find out that would be great!
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I've tried to call enforcement but have been told to put it in writing. I've also spoken to the press office. I've asked both to clarify what the Council policy is on this issue. I hope one way or another, between us, we contrive to get an answer.
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Permalink Reply by Omotn on
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Enforcement teams like easy targets. I too will write to a contact at the council. This may be one of the ways Veolia plans to reduce costs.
Having this publicised may be a double edged sword for smileygirl and others like her.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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While we're on the subject, sort of - why are businesses allowed not to sort their rubbish? Whenever I see trade waste on the street it seems to include heaps of cardboard, cans etc, the easily sorted R/C rubbish, that is destined for landfill. What is the arrangement? Given the hours of my life I've spent tearing windows out of envelopes and washing cartons and separating plastic from metal etc, am I just a total idiot?
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Permalink Reply by Bob Ruggles on
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Trade are not allowed to use Recycling Centres
A Associate has a firm - I tried to take a lot of cardboard to Horsey Depot on his behalf
They stated Trade is not allowed to Recycle -
My Money is on they could recycle more tonnage than all Residents
Re Waste All Haringey Waste in burn't Generating Electricity
Reason I do not recycle Paper or Cardboard - better Value and more Greener to makes
Electricity saves importing Fuel -
I am sure I read that there is No Longer a Viable market for Newspaper or Cardboard ?
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Permalink Reply by Justin Johnson on
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@ pamish: You need to know your MRFs (pronounced "merf"s). MRF stands for Material Recycling Facility. A "Clean MRF" is where all your lovely separated domestic recycling goes. A "Dirty MRF" is where all my unseparated business rubbish goes. At a MRF (clean or dirty) materials are separated mechanically. As you might imagine, recycling via a Clean MRF makes for much more efficient recycling, but it's not always an option.
As a business owner, with a shopfront business on Ferme Park Road, I am entirely responsible for the disposal of our business's rubbish. Haringey provides businesses with no rubbish collections or recycling services whatsover. I could ask Veolia to tender for my rubbish, but in that instance they are just one commercial waste disposal company among many. When first arranging this 18 months ago, I found it impossible to find a commercial waste disposal company that would take separated rubbish. They would only take an unseparated bin- or sack-ful. So we put all our rubbish together because we have no choice. We are not even allowed to dispose of our re-cycling by taking it to the Hornsey or Tottenham Recycling Centres ourselves.
So it may look like it's all heading off to landfill, but in fact it's heading for the Dirty MRF.
Don't tell Haringey, as this is probably against their rules, but I do take all our tea-bags, dead flowers and apple cores home and compost them in my garden.
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The way round this is not to get caught, so your next move is to keep a very low profile.
I attended an Area Forum the other evening and the presentation on Veolia made very clear that business waste is treated completely differently from domestic.
The other aspects of running a business from home you should also consider are:
1) does your domestic insurance cover it - if not your insurer may invalidate all claims
2) are you paying the correct rates/council tax
3) if you own your home when you sell it you will be subject to CGT on any gain on that proportion used for business
4) If you are a tenant there may well be a clause preventing you from running a business
Having said all this I think you have been very unlucky, many thousands of people get away with all these things.
In terms of a low profile maybe you could get this thread deleted.
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Thanks for your comments Adrian. Since the broader issue you helpfully raise may be of concern to a number of people reading this, I'm concerned to ensure that we direct folk to reliable reference sources where concerns can be fact-checked and any necessary appropriate action taken.
On a quick Google around I came up with a piece in The Times from 2007. The facts for the article were contributed by an organisation that supports home-based businesses. I've dropped them a note to ask for any additional info they have, but in the meantime the article sounds quite authoritative and suggests less cause for concern.
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My advice was to operate beneath the radar, the article's advice is to tell the council, your mortgage provider (or, my addition, your landlord), your insurance company, HMRC (the article for VAT purposes though my concern was CGT), and to consider any Health and Safety implications.
If smileygirl were to approach the council and have it established that she is not due to pay business rates (one of the possibilities in the article), then presumably, for consistency, the fine would also be inapplicable.
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In my view the fine would be absolutely inappropriate and unsupportive of local enterprise in these tough times.
Here's what the HMRC say about CGT.
Hopefully someone can chip in with some more reference sources for folk to review and consider their choices. I imagine anyone who uses an accountant can take advice from them.
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