Woman wins £13,500 over bin

A woman has won £13,500 damages after a local authority failed to clear rubbish overflowing from a bin outside her Bermondsey flat.

Katherine Long, who has lived with the stench of rubbish piled outside her front door for more than 10 years, won the right to compensation from Southwark Council.

Ms Long took Southwark to court over a shed containing the bin and the ever-escalating volumes of domestic refuse. She said the council did not empty the bin often enough.

Residents who found the chute too small for their rubbish bags banged the cabin door day and night as they threw them inside and the bin overflowed until it mounted up near Ms Long's door, attracting vermin and maggots.

Today, three Appeal Court judges upheld an earlier ruling that Ms Long is entitled to £13,500 damages from the council for its failure to abate the nuisance.