Fine for tyre dealer who failed to submit waste transfer notes
A tyre dealer and repairer has been prosecuted for failing to submit waste transfer notes when asked to move 844 tyres from his Derbyshire base.
The Environment Agency visited the premises of ECO Tyres in Swadlincote on 5 September 2023 after the regulator received information that a large number of tyres were being stored around the premises. The officers returned to the site on 11 October 2023 and found that the tyres had been removed. However, the Director of the company failed to produce the respective waste transfer note(s).
Further attempts to contact the Director via phone and email were ignored. The Director was issued a fixed penalty notice for failing to produce waste transfer notes, which he then failed to pay.
Every person who produces, carries, keeps or disposes of waste is subject to the duty of care, which requires that waste is managed appropriately, including ensuring transfers of waste are recorded.
Breaches
The Director was fined for breaching Section 34(5) and Section 34(6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Regulation 35 of the Waste (England & Wales) Regulations 2011:
Penalty
The Director was fined £518, with costs of £600 and a victim surcharge of £207.
Yorkshire Water enters a record £1million civil sanction following water pollution
Yorkshire Water has had an enforcement undertaking for £1million accepted after it was found to have polluted the Hookstone Beck in Harrogate.
Yorkshire Water’s Hookstone Road combined sewer overflow has an environmental permit which allows a discharge into the beck when the storm sewage facility is full due to rainfall or snow melt.
On 31 August 2016, the Environment Agency received a report of pollution to the Hookstone Beck. This was traced to the overflow at Hookstone Road, which had blocked. Yorkshire Water was not alerted of this issue due to faulty telemetry equipment.
An Environment Agency investigation found that almost 1,500 fish had been killed and water quality was affected for 2.5km downstream. A series of further blockages and discharges took place in the following months.
A detailed Environment Agency investigation followed to measure the impact of ammonia releases. An assessment of Event Duration Monitoring data confirmed that Yorkshire Water was in breach of its environmental permit.
Enforcement Undertaking
In response to the Environment Agency’s investigation, Yorkshire Water submitted an Enforcement Undertaking to the Environment Agency. This proposed a charitable donation totalling £1m, which is the largest ever accepted by the regulator.
Enforcement Undertakings are a voluntary offer made by companies or individuals to make amends for their offending, and usually includes a payment to an environmental charity to carry out environmental improvements in the local area.
£500,000 of the Enforcement Undertaking went to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, while the other £500,000 went to the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust.
As part of the Enforcement Undertaking requirements, Yorkshire Water has carried out a significant £1.85m improvement and rebuilding project to the overflow and surrounding sewer network to bring it back into compliance with the environmental permit.
Two brothers jailed and banned from acting as company directors following waste offences
The operators of a quarry near Stevenage have been given prison sentences after they were found to have stored and buried large quantities of waste illegally.
The Codicote Quarry Ltd site held a permit to treat and store a limited amount of soil waste. An Environment Agency investigation found that the quarry went beyond what was authorised by the permit.
The suspect material was predominately household, commercial and industrial waste, but also electrical items, car parts, furniture, food packaging, wood and metal. In all, at least 200,000 cubic metres of banned and potentially harmful material.
The Environment Agency first questioned the men operating the quarry in 2017 about the amount of waste the quarry was holding. Supported by Hertfordshire County Council, the Environment Agency undertook a large number of on-site checks to get the operators to comply with the law. However, the waste piles grew and began to decompose.
As well as storing piles of waste, the operators were also burying it under a layer of chalk. By November 2017, with the quarry holding so much illegal and contaminated waste, the Environment Agency suspended the site’s permit.
Environment Agency Officers later issued two notices aiming at getting the waste removed, but these were not complied with and none of it was taken away as required by the Environment Agency.
The illegal disposals means the site will need monitoring for many years to minimise the risk of polluting the nearby River Mimram and groundwater sources as the quarry was not set up for landfill.
Breaches
The men were prosecuted for breaches of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Penalties
One of the men was handed a 17-month prison term, while the other, was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for 2 years.
The court also banned the men from acting as company directors for 8 years.
Any award of costs or a confiscation order against the men and Codicote Quarry Ltd will be considered at a later date.
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