Postcard hobbyist faces £5,000 fine
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A HOBBYIST who collects postcards sent to him from around the world has received a letter from the council demanding that he declares himself as a business or pay a £5,000 fine, writes Andy McCorkell.
Andy Hoang, 29, a computer technician who lives in Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush, was stunned when he received the correspondence from Hammersmith & Fulham Council's street scene enforcement team.
Mr Hoang, who said he started his hobby as a reaction to social networking site Facebook, has denied council claims that he is running a business from his home or is producing 'trade waste'.
He said: "It's just a hobby really. Instead of doing Facebook, I decided that interaction on Facebook is really shallow - people are just showing off. I thought if what you've got to say is so important, send me a postcard or take me out for a drink and tell me about it."
When he closed his Facebook account his friends asked him how he was he was going to stay in contact.
"So I told them I am going to go out and meet them, or if what they want to say is so important, they can send me a postcard," he said.
"I opened my hobby out to the whole world with a blog and I have made loads of friends from people who just like to write letters or draw pictures. I get about four letters a day and my website gets more than 500 hits a day."
But Mr Hoang's novel idea soon fell foul of council scrutiny.
He added: "The council sent me a letter saying 'we have become aware that you are getting loads of mail and can you please register the business that you are running here and pay us business rates for your waste disposal'.
"I never throw anything away. I put everything on my wall."
The letter said if he did not register as a business in 28 days he would be fined £5,000.
"This is hilarious because I am just running a little hobby website. It's come as a bit of a surprise, but I have put it on my website and got a good laugh from all of my readers who have said 'this is great, you are a low waste generating project.'"
Mr Hoang has denied council claims that he produces lots of rubbish.
He said: "I work at Roehampton University and when I get home I throw almost nothing away! I live in a house with four other people and we generate the normal amount of rubbish that a house of this size ought to."
The council was quick to downplay the letter as a warning over waste.
The spokesman said: "Our street scene enforcement officers, who are tasked with keeping our streets clean, came across some waste that was dumped on the pavement and were able to trace it back to Mr Huang. This letter is a producer notice asking Mr Huang to provide details that he has his waste collected properly.
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Hammersmith&Kensington
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