THREE Southampton homes have been fined for not taking care of their rubbish – in what is a first in the city.

The council’s waste and recycling service slapped the £60 penalty fee on the trio, who repeatedly failed to “properly manage their waste”, which were overflowing onto the streets.

It comes after the city changed to alternate weekly bin collections last summer.

But, since the change, the authority says some residents have “persistently failed” to manage their waste and recycling, leading to calls from neighbouring residents for action to be taken.

As a result, the council issued a letter advising households that enforcement powers would be used against those who continued to mismanage their waste, even after being offered support and receiving written warnings that they risked a fine.

Officers from the Street Scene service area even offered advice to lower the level of waste and recycling produced and be dealt with effectively.

However, when the levels of did not improve, the households were posted letters notifying them that they would be issued a fixed penalty notice if they continued to fail to regulate their waste and recycling.

Southampton City Council would not say which area of the city the fines were issued in.

Cabinet member for the public realm, Councillor Jacqui Rayment, said: “This is a course of action we did not wish to take, but when households are ignoring warnings about failing to manage their waste properly and causing health and safety concerns for their neighbours then we will issue fines when necessary.

“We would much rather offer advice and support to residents when needed. The transition to fortnightly general waste collections has been an adjustment that some homes have needed some help to make, and on the whole these residents have responded really well, making extra effort to get things right.

“The issuing of these first fixed penalty notices send a clear message to the small number of offending households in the city."