Michelle Dolphin - 20-Nov-2007
- On 19 November 2007 Dean Bird pleaded
guilty at Burton-upon-Trent Magistrates
Court to one charge relating to depositing
waste on unlicensed land at Orchard Farm,
Streethay, Lichfield.
The charge was brought by the Environment
Agency under the Section 33 of the Environment
Protection Act 11000. Dean Bird was fined
£700 and ordered to pay costs of £1400.
For the Environment Agency, Kiran Cassini
told the court that at the time of the offence
Dean Bird lived at Orchard Farm, Streethay,
where he also operated a small licensed
waste transfer station.
On 28 April 2006, an Environment Agency
employee saw a fire which appeared to be
on Dean Bird’s land and photographs were
taken.
On 4 May 2006, Environment Agency officers
visited Mr Bird at his site with a view
of investigating the fire. Officers inspected
the premises and found a large deposit of
waste piled up in the shape of a bonfire.
The waste consisted of mattresses, headboards,
wood and a large amount of ash that suggested
that burning previous burning had taken
place. The waste seen by the officers was
on an area of land outside the licensed
area away from the immediate vicinity of
the house.
On 18 July 2006, Dean Bird was interviewed
under caution at the Environment Agency’s
Sutton Coldfield office. Mr Bird admitted
to burning rubbish on the land and claimed
that it had been generated from his house,
surrounding fields and stables.
Speaking after the case, Madeleine Nickson,
an Environment Agency officer involved in
the investigation said: “Dean Bird was aware
of the conditions of his Waste Management
Licence and broke environmental law by burning
and depositing waste on unlicensed land,
which will not be tolerated by the Environment
Agency. We have a duty to protect the environment
and ensure its future for present and future
generations”.
+ More
LBC 1152 AM is an official Environment
Agency flood warning partner
Jane Nower - 19-Nov-2007 - London-based
radio station LBC1152AM has signed an agreement
with the Environment Agency, cementing its
position as an official media ‘flood warning’
partner.
When the Environment Agency is expecting
weather conditions to lead to flooding it
issues a series of alerts known as flood
watches and flood warnings directly to the
public by text, phone, fax or email, as
well as via local media.
As LBC 1152 AM broadcasts to a wide range
of listeners, reaching homes and businesses
from Luton, north of London, down to Farnham
in the south, it is hoped that the Environment
Agency’s messages will be heard far and
wide.
In each region managed by the Environment
Agency, teams of staff plan the way that
the area should respond to flooding, both
from the point of view of preparing for
and reacting to events. Forecasting for
the rivers in the south east of the Thames
region takes place in Reading at the Environment
Agency’s Flood Forecasting Centre, where
an extensive network of rain and river gauges
are monitored and a variety of forecasting
techniques are used to predict what is expected
to happen. If rivers are forecast to come
out of banks or flood properties, Flood
Watches or Warnings are issued by the Thames
South East Area Flood Incident Management
team.
Louise Guy, a flood incident technical
specialist for the south east of the Thames
region said: “Within the LBC 1152 AM catchment,
it generally takes sustained rainfall with
high totals to cause the River Thames to
rise to levels where properties are flooded.
The London urban rivers including the Beverley
Brook, Hogsmill, Wandle, Ravensbourne, Brent,
Crane, and Lower Lee tributaries respond
quickly to rainfall as they act as a drain
for highly urbanised areas where rainfall
runs off immediately into the rivers, rather
than soaking into the ground.
"The other tributaries of the Thames
such as the Wey, Bournes, Mole, Colne, Lee,
Roding, Loddon, Kennet, and Thame respond
much more slowly than the London urban rivers,
but more quickly than the River Thames.”
Eamonn Forde, who manages flood risk in
the tidal Thames area of the Radio Jackie
catchment added: “The River Thames itself
is defended to a very high standard and
the Thames Barrier and its associated gates
are part of these defences. When there is
a significantly high tide combined with
a surge in water levels coming up the Thames
estuary, we close the Thames Barrier to
protect central London.
“The Barrier has no individual trigger
level for closure. Hydrological and meteorological
data from the Met Office is fed to our control
room by telemetry and is used in our own
forecasting models. The decision to close
is based on three major factors: the height
of the tide in the Thames estuary, the tidal
surge, which naturally accompanies each
tide and the flow entering the tidal Thames,
which is measured as it passes over Teddington
weir. Closure of all ten gates takes just
under one and a half hours. The gates then
remain closed until the water level downstream
of the Thames Barrier has reduced to the
same level as upstream.”
Jo Newsholme, a news broadcaster for LBC
1152 AM said: “This media partnership with
the Environment Agency will mean that we
are able to provide up-to-the-minute information
about flooding, as well as getting a much
better idea of the challenges that face
our listeners at home and at work as they
learn to deal with flooding.”
The Environment Agency is encouraging as
many people as possible to sign up to Floodline
on 0845 988 1188 to protect their homes
and businesses from flooding.
