One of our pet hates is the ‘abuse ‘ of laws by jumped up officials high on minime power. Lord Acton coined the phrase "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" and when it comes to local councils you can find some of the worst offenders. Now we’re not talking about a lot of power here (think tap rather than hydroelectric dam) but somehow it still manages to go to the heads of some of the small minded trolls that manage to scrabble into some of our local councils. And that is more than enough to make people’s lives a misery over inconsequential wrongdoings.

Under new council rules, every adult in a household is now liable to be fined £110 for a bunch of new offences such as putting a bin out too early or taking it in too late, leaving extra sacks of rubbish and over-filling. As much as these offences are terrible burdens upon society, has the doctrine of proportionality gone to the dogs here? With such petty misdemeanours for officious inspectors to prey upon we see nice revenue streams being created to fill some of the black holes left by the credit crunch etc.

And the worst affected people are likely to be students because there is usually no clear head of household. So not done with being fleeced for their higher education fees they could well get fleeced again for getting rid of too many old pizza boxes. Leicester City Council, has moved quickly to grab the prize for draconian to££ers of the year award by adopting the fines-for-all strategy. The Telegraph reports that already student Zoe Kozlik, 21, and her three housemates had to pay £110 each to Leicester council for breaking the new rules. The council claimed that the fines were a last resort after householders had been properly consulted. Course they did.

Homes could face £500 fines for breaking wheelie bin rules [Telegraph]