A COUPLE claim council enforcement teams were “over zealous” when a complaint was made about three bin bags.

Jannette Gillies, 62, and her husband Douglas, 64, of Primrose Hill, were having work completed on their home last week by a decorator.

The room renovations generated just three black bags of rubbish, one each on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Jannette said: “My husband works nights so we put them by the bins ready to take the tip on Monday.

“We were amazed on Friday morning at about 11.30am when two men from Kirklees Council came in a van and told us there had been a complaint, that the front of the house was full of black bags.

“I even got the decorator down and he told them that he had only put them there a day or so ago.

“The two officers wouldn’t hear a thing about it. They were so stroppy, very much ‘I’m in a uniform, I’m the boss’.”

She said that the officers clearly suggested they could be liable to pay a fine if action wasn’t taken within two weeks.

Mrs Gillies added: “The most frustrating thing is there are gardens in the area that are in a dreadful state, but we get picked on for three bags which are about to go to the tip.

“I think it’s a malicious complaint and it’s been acted on very quickly.”

Residents in the street have their bin collections on alternate Thursdays and the couple maintain their plan was to get the waste to their local tip.

A spokesman for Kirklees Council denied there was any heavy handed enforcement.

The spokesman said: “We called at the property in Cross Lane after receiving a complaint about waste in the garden, but the situation was quickly resolved.

“An enforcement officer spoke with the householder, who said they intended taking the waste to the Household Waste Recycling Centre.

“The enforcement officer was happy with this assurance and left without indicating that any further action would be taken.”