SOUTHAMPTON householders are being asked to turn in their neighbours for leaving their wheelie bin out on the street for too long.

Bin chiefs are turning to residents to help them in their crackdown on bins cluttering the city’s pavements.

As reported by the Daily Echo yesterday, residents who leave their bins on the pavement on the wrong day face being fined £100.

Only one person, described as a persistent offender, has been fined so far, but many more have received warning letters.

Southampton is the only local authority in our region to start enforcing the powers, which have been described as “heavyhanded" by campaigners.

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Winchester, Eastleigh, Fareham and Test Valley councils advise residents to keep their bins off the pavement, but yesterday ruled out introducing on-the-spot fines.

A Southampton City Council spokesman last night revealed the warning letters were only posted after they’d received a complaint from a member of the public.

Households will get at least five warning letters or visits before they are hit with the £100 fine, which is reduced to £65 if paid within ten days.

“If the problem continued we’d talk to that person again and again to resolve their problems before taking it further,”

the spokesman added.

“We take a very common sense approach to this. Often people have very good reasons as to why they have to leave their bins out. We will put a lot of time into working with them to resolve any issues they have.”

Meanwhile, the council will later this year spend £179,000 on installing a new computer system on the city’s 34 dustcarts.

Crews will have access to details of their round, traffic updates and information on each house, such as any special requirements and previous missed bins.

They will log incidents of damaged or contaminated bins and those not put out to defend complaints about missed collections.

Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “The powers being granted to the Bin Stasi should be opposed by the people of Southampton.

“Bureaucrats everywhere are using the environment as an excuse to intrude on our lives and increase council revenue and it shouldn’t be allowed – especially when disproportionately applied to trivial and absurd ‘offences’ like leaving one’s bin in the wrong place.”