ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

RPS086: Waste portable batteries delivered to battery collection points

This statement is targeted to operators of collection points and provides guidance on the enforcement approach taken by the Environment Agency.
 

Framework and tools for local flood risk assessment: project report

NORTHERN IRELAND DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIROMENT

The Pollution Prevention and Control (Industrial Emissions - NIEA) Charging Scheme (Northern Ireland) 2014

This document presents fees and charges for pollution prevention and control permit applications and the operational permits.
 

Water Order Fees and Charges 2014

This document presents fees and charges for discharge consent applications and regulating operational consents.
 

Water Abstraction and Impoundment Licensing Fees and Charges 2014

This document presents fees and charges for abstraction and impoundment licence applications and their regulation.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Towards a Litter-Free Scotland: A Strategic Approach to Higher Quality Local Environments

This strategy set outs Scotland’s approach to address litter and flytipping issues.

Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2012

This document presents estimates of Scottish greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2012.

High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013 - Guidance to Local Authorities

Guidance is provided on the application process for high hedges notices, their enforcement and determining whether a notice is necessary.

Planning Guidance

The Scottish Government has published its updated planning policy and framework, which were subject to a consultation earlier in 2014.

Scottish Planning Policy

This policy is a statement of Scottish Government policy on nationally important land use matters. The policy contains various specific policy statements across various topics. The document aims to provide nationally consistent policies, while allowing flexibility to reflect local circumstances.

The planning policy concerns the preparation of development plans, the design of developments, how planning applications will be determined and the appeals process.

National Planning Framework 3 (NPF3)

NPF3 designates 14 national strategic developments, and provides underlying spatial development plans across Scotland. The document sets out actions to support development in Scotland across a number of themes.

NPF3 replaces National Planning Framework 2, which was published in 2009. NPF3 was developed in order to facilitate long term development and investment. National Planning Framework 4 is due to replace NPF3 in 2019.

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE (DECC)

UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory summary factsheets

DECC has published updated its series of greenhouse gas inventory factsheets, which provide an overview to emissions within the UK.

The Green Deal: Consumer guide to the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund

The Green Deal: guide to the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive

DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT (DCLG)

The list of approved methodologies and software for calculating the energy performance of buildings have been updated:

• Method for calculating the energy performance of buildings: notice of approval
• DCLG approved national calculation methodologies and software programs for buildings other than dwellings

Improving planning performance: criteria for designation

Underperforming local planning authorities may be designated by the Government, meaning that certain applications will be handled by the DCLG. This document sets out criteria for designation.

MARINE MANAGEMENT ORGANISATION (MMO)

The MMO has published a series of guidance on environmental management and spill response:

• Marine pollution contingency plan
• Standing environment groups
• How to use oil spill treatment products and equipment
• Approved oil spill treatment products
• Get an oil spill treatment product approved: fees
• Get an oil spill treatment product approved: tests
   

Compliance and Enforcement Strategy

The MMO has published statutory guidance on its approach to achieving compliance in relation to fisheries management.
 

Stobart Biomass fined after Dust from Wood Piles affect Nearby Properties

Stobart Biomass was fined £14,000 after one of its waste wood stores in Hull caused a risk of pollution. The company was handed the fine on Tuesday 3 June by Hull and Holderness Magistrates Court.

The firm was in court over its waste transfer operation at Albert Dock in Hull, where it was storing waste woodchip in 2011 and 2012 for the energy from waste industry.

The Environment Agency had given Stobart Biomass some guidance to ensure the stored wood would not cause any problems to the local environment or nearby communities. But when investigating officers visited the site they saw that dust from the wood piles was not being prevented from being blown onto nearby areas during high winds in dry conditions.

Sarah Middleton, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that dust problems did arise as some local residents reported brown dust being blown onto their properties, windows and cars.

Stobart Biomass had also failed to protect the dock from the waste. Piles of wood were seen located on a concrete surface but some had no containment to prevent water run-off from entering the water. One pile of woodchip and household waste was situated so close to the dockside that some of the waste was falling into the water, posing a risk to the Humber Estuary.

Environment Agency officers requested that this pile be moved away from the dock edge, and as this work was carried out, significant amounts of waste woodchip, dust and debris blew along the dock.

Stobart Biomass admitted one charge of keeping controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm to human health. In mitigation, the firm said a dust management plan had been drawn up and passed to a stevedore company, but this other firm had failed to manage the risk appropriately.

Waste Dealer receives a 16 Month Sentence after Illegally Exporting Hazardous Electrical Waste

A repeat waste offender has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for illegally exporting 46 tonnes of hazardous electrical waste to Nigeria, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and the Congo. Broken cathode ray tube televisions and fridge freezers containing ozone-depleting subsrtances were found in four containers intercepted at ports between September 2012 and April 2013.

This is the first time a defendant has been sentenced to a custodial sentence for illegally exporting waste.

The offender was previously convicted of exporting similar hazardous electrical waste to Nigeria in 2011 during one of the Environment Agency’s biggest export cases, Operation Boron. However he continued to illegally export televisions and freezers to West Africa while appealing, unsuccessfully, against his previous convictions.

It is thought that the offender stood to make around £32,000 from the export of the intercepted containers. He collected the electrical waste from civic amenity sites in London and the Home Counties and took it to his licensed waste site in Walthamstow where it should have been tested for functionality and safety before being exported. He made money by collecting the waste and selling it on at about £8,000 a container as well as avoiding the costs incurred in dealing with the waste safely.