Hertford, England: Biffa Waste Services has been fined £32,500 at Hertford Magistrates Court after an Environment Agency investigation into smells and odours from a Ware landfill.
The company was found guilty of four counts of breaching their Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) licence and fined £20,000. In addition the company was also ordered to pay £12,500 costs by Hertford Magistrates on Tuesday 6 November.
Westmill landfill
The landfill site started operations in the early 1980’s accepting household, commercial and industrial waste. The first section of the quarry was filled by the summer of 2004 and tipping moved to the next site under a new PPC licence.
Within six days after tipping began in the next section of the quarry in July 2004, residents on the Vicarage Estate describing the smell as ‘like standing behind a dustcart’ and registered their complaints with the Environment Agency.
The Environment Agency said that at first the it worked with Biffa, putting together a plan to improve the site and reduce the impact of the smells, but complaints remained high. The regulatory body saw fit to issued the site with an Enforcement Notice in November 2004. This required them to prevent odours polluting the environment or a serious detriment to the amenity of the locality.
The site was receiving around 90 lorries tipping up to 1,000 tonnes of waste daily. With no improvement after the Enforcement Notice had expired, the Agency decided that a prosecution was the only course of action left.
Appeal and re-trial
The Agency says that the case has taken many hearings through the courts with the company pleading not guilty. The first case, in April 2006, was dismissed by the judge, but the Environment Agency appealed to the Queens Bench Division of the High Court on 12 December 2006 who found in the Environment Agency’s favour. A retrial was ordered at Hertford Magistrates.
Comments
Environment Agency Officer Clare Richards said:
“This is a great result for the environment and local community, and has been achieved by more than three years persistent hard work by the Environment Agency.
“The site has caused misery for many people living on the Vicarage Estate and I have often had residents phone up in tears, frustrated both at the ongoing effect on their lives and at the continual delays in bringing our case to court. However, it has been worth the effort and I believe this will act as an incentive to other operators to take better care of their local environment and community.”
Speaking to MoreThanWaste.com, a spokesman for Biffa said:
“We obviously regret this case and are sorry about the four instances it refers to that were back in November 2004 and January and February 2005.
"Local residents are aware - and this is something that was acknowledged by the District Judge - that since 2004 a lot has been done, and continues to be done on site, to help ensure that this essential disposal facility for local waste causes no serious disruption in the community.”