Restriction order issued against land near Kings Lynn
On 16 August 2022 a Norwich magistrates’ Court issued a restriction order regarding 15 hectares of land off Clockcase Road in Clenchwarton. The order prohibits any person from accessing the area and prohibits the import of any waste into it.
The restriction order allows criminal sanctions to be taken against any person failing to comply with it. The order will remain in force until at least 23:59 on 15 February 2023 but this could be extended.
The order was issued after an application by the Environment Agency. This application considered the harm waste activities underway on the site could have to human health and the environment.
The restriction order follows a June 2022 stop notice issued against the owner of a separate parcel of land at Kenfield Farm, Clenchwarton. The notice required the immediate cessation of unauthorised deposits and burning of waste following a major fire at the farm. The recipient of this notice is also associated with the area of land off Clockcase Road.
Relevant Legislation
Section 109D of the Environment Act 1995 allows the Environment Agency to apply to magistrates’ courts for restriction orders where there is a risk of serious pollution to the environment or human health that is a result of the treatment, keeping, deposit or disposal of waste in or on the premises and an order is necessary to prevent the risk from continuing.
Section 109D was introduced by the Waste Enforcement (England and Wales) Regulations 2018 on 29 March 2018.
Fly-tipper who failed to clear waste appears in court
A Devon fly-tipper has been fined after he failed to clear illegally dumped waste from a field. Dumped waste included vehicles, furniture, white goods and gas bottles.
The man was previously given a conditional discharge for 12 months by Plymouth Magistrates in February 2021, when he had pleaded guilty to dumping waste without an environmental permit between January 2019 and August 2020. The conditional discharge required that the man clear the site by the end of May 2022. The man was also required to provide proof the rubbish had been properly transferred to a legitimate site permitted to accept such waste.
On 14 September 2022 the man appeared before magistrates for contempt after he failed to clear the waste by the deadline. The man was fined and ordered to pay costs after showing evidence that the waste has now been cleared.
Breach and Relevant Legislation
The man pleaded guilty earlier in 2022 to breaching Regulation 12(1)(a) and Regulation 38(1)(b) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016:
A Regulation 44 order was imposed during the earlier hearing, which required the site to be cleared of rubbish by 31 May 2022:
- Regulation 44 provides courts with the power to make orders requiring the cause of the offence to be remedied.
Penalties
On 14 September 2022 the man was fined £100 and ordered to pay £80 costs.
At February’s hearing, the man was ordered to pay costs of £500 plus a £22 victim surcharge.
Abattoir fined after nearly 350 odour complaints
A poultry abattoir has received a six-figure fine after a district judge concluded that odour offences had a significant effect on the quality of life in Banham, Norfolk.
The site holds an environmental permit to slaughter up to 67 million birds a year. Poultry was brought into the abattoir alive and prepared to be later sold in shops and restaurants. The court heard that poor practices and the deterioration of Banham Poultry (2018) Ltd’s premises had generated significant odours and allowed them to escape. The Environment Agency recorded odours between January 2019 and September 2021.
The court heard that foul-smelling air had escaped through damaged and open doors. Watery blood from poultry collected on the abattoir floor, prevented from draining away because of blocked drains. Other parts of the building were badly corroded and beyond repair. Part of the site collapsed in May 2020 when the roof caved in. Structural weaknesses saw another roof blow off in a storm. Repairs that were done were said to be ‘shabby’.
Finding decaying animal parts, investigators were also concerned at poor housekeeping, and no contingency plan when animal blood and waste was on site too long. The shortcomings were made worse by carcasses stored outside in the hot summer of 2020. Dead animals were kept in a trailer in sweltering conditions with no refrigeration.
Staff lacked the relevant training in environmental issues, so were unable to deal with the abattoir’s many problems, described by the agency as ‘chronic’.
Streets and houses in the vicinity of the abattoir were overpowered by a constant smell from the abattoir, as the stay-at-home pandemic laws had unintended consequences. But the smells around Attleborough began more than a year before lockdown.
The Environment Agency warned the company to act after 9 complaints about the slaughterhouse were made early in 2019, coinciding with waste blood being kept on site too long. Believing the company had breached its permit for managing smells, investigators issued an enforcement notice to limit or prevent odours leaving the boundary of the abattoir. The company failed to comply with this notice.
Odour Management Plan
An investigation found that the site’s odour management plan, meant to control the effect of work on the community, was ‘ripped up’, according to one employee. Another member of staff wrote in an e-mail in 2019 they were ‘embarrassed…’ and couldn’t defend the company’s poor management of the site, adding ‘we stink’.
The Environment Agency consistently told Banham the plan either didn’t contain the necessary measures to prevent odour pollution, or procedures weren’t being followed. Banham either responded to the warnings very late or simply ignored them.
Breach
Banham Poultry (2018) Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 38(2) and Regulation 38(3) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016:
- Regulation 38(2) makes it an offence to fail to comply with or to contravene an environmental permit condition.
- Regulation 38(3) makes it an offence for a person to fail to comply with various forms of notice, including enforcement notices.
Penalty
Banham Poultry (2018) Ltd was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay £67,621.45 in costs with a victim surcharge of £170.
A separate penalty was not applied for a breach of Regulation 38(3).
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