Sam House Ltd, which runs a waste transfer station on Becks Road, Keighley, was handed the fine by Bradford Magistrates’ Court on August 2, after pleading guilty to four environmental offences.
The firm was prosecuted for storing too much waste at its Becks Road transfer station, as well as running an illegal waste site at Rosse Street, according to the Agency.
Sam House was fined a total of £18,800 for the offences, and ordered to pay legal costs of £8,500 plus a surcharge of £120.
Breaches
Chris Bunting, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that EA officers first discovered permit breaches in April 2013.
Mohammed Rashid, the director of Sam House, was storing overflowing skips on the roadside, outside his Keighley premises, and he had four times the amount of waste for which the site was permitted to handle to store, it had been claimed.
The Environment Agency said that Sam House was served with a legal notice in October 2013, which required Mr Rashid to reduce the amount of waste on the site within one month.
The work was carried out, but an inspection in June 2014, revealed the transfer station was again used to store excessive amounts of waste, the Agency added. Approximately 75 tonnes was present, and some was on unmade ground.
Inspection
A further May 2015 inspection revealed 100 tonnes of waste was stored on the site.
Two legal notices were enforced on the company to remove the excessive waste, but both were ignored.
Investigation work by EA officers found Sam House was also operating an illegal waste site on the Rosse Street premises. Officers discovered 42 skips full of waste and 40 empty skips, standing on bare ground containing plastics, glass, uPVC frames, furniture, pallets, rubble and garden waste.
The company complied with an enforcement notice to clear the waste, but the EA found the waste had been misdescribed and the volumes under-recorded.
Mr Rashid told the EA in mitigation he hadn’t researched waste legislation before taking over the permit. The sites have now been cleared and the company will be dissolved.
Rita Reid, team leader at the Environment Agency, said after the hearing: “Waste operations like this can have a detrimental impact on the environment and local communities. That’s why it is vital that waste operators stick to the rules and meet the conditions of their environmental permits.”
letsrecycle.com attempted to contact Sam House for comment, but the company could not be reached.
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