06/05/2005 - On 05 May
2005 Sprint Hire and Sales Ltd, trading as
Atlas Skips, in Stainforth near Doncaster,
pleaded guilty at Doncaster Magistrates court
to two charges relating to depositing and
keeping and treating waste without a Waste
Management Licence.
Wykeham Estates (Northern) Limited also pleaded
guilty to two charges of permitting the deposit
and permitting the keeping and treating of
waste. They also pleaded guilty to a separate
offence of failing to comply with a Notice
under the Environmental Protection Act to
clear the site when requested to do so.
The Environment Agency brought the charges
under Section 33 and Section 59 of the Environmental
Protection Act 11000. Sprint Hire and Sales
Ltd was fined £5,000.00 and ordered
to pay £3,000.00 costs. Wykeham Estates
(Northern) Ltd was fined £6,000.00 and
ordered to pay £3,000.00 costs.
Speaking after the case, Richard Hardy, an
Environment Agency Officer involved in the
investigation, said:
" The dumping and burning of waste is
illegal and this investigation has shown that
the defendants have shown no regard for the
environment or public safety. The Environment
Agency takes these illegal activities extremely
seriously and will not hesitate in taking
enforcement action.
It is illegal to deposit waste without a
waste management licence being in force and
people should take care when paying someone
to take their waste away.
Anyone who is concerned about illegal waste
activities can report this to the Environment
Agency hotline on 0800 807060."
For the Environment Agency, Kiran Cassini
told the court a routine inspection of a near
by car breakers yard on 7 January 2004 was
carried out, where an Environment Officer
observed several skips containing waste materials
on waste land near to the offices of Sprint
Hire and Sales Ltd. This included wood, tyres,
bedding, plastic, metal and building rubble.
There was also evidence that burning had taken
place on the site.
A later visit to the site on 30 January 2004
and 11 March 2004 concluded that more waste
and burning had taken place on the land.
On 16 April 2004 two officers visited the
site, where more waste had been deposited.
They observed a company employee drive onto
the ground in a skip lorry and unload a skip
off the back of the vehicle.
Several more site visits on 5 May 2004, 21
May 2004 and 17 June 2004 saw officers return
to the site and witness rubbish being dumped.
The waste was identified by two witnesses
as having been collected from their homes
by Atlas Skips who were being run by Sprint
Hire in May 2004.
Investigations indicated Sprint Hire employees
had been responsible for making deposits of
waste on the land.
The Director of Wykeham Estates (Northern)
Ltd was served a section 59 Notice of the
Environmental Protection Act on 12 August
2004, stating that all material from the site
must be removed within a 28 days. The waste
remained on site until the Environment Agency
issued proceedings in January 2005.
In Mitigation, the court was told that most
of the site had since been cleared at a cost
of approximately £9,000.00. Arrangements
were being made to clear the remaining waste.
Mr Hughes and Ms C Burdiss attended court
on behalf of the companies and it was explained
that there were extremely sorry for their
actions.
