EA said it was an anonymous tip-off that let to the discovery of almost 700 lorry-loads of waste dumped illegally at Rusper Golf Club in Dorking, close to Gatwick Airport.
A district judge deemed the behaviour “reckless,” and delivered fines totalling £38,000. The three companies were convicted at Brighton magistrates’ court on 20 May, having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
Rusper Leisure allowed Crawley haulier Cook and Son, and Bell and Sons Construction to offload the waste, none of which are said to have had approval from the Environment Agency.
Having got planning permission to raise part of an embankment two metres higher, on the driving range, in order to catch stray golf balls, Rusper Leisure agreed with Mole Valley district council to use only clean soil.
Investigators from the Environment Agency said that the surface of the bund contained glass, wood, plastic, tarmac, brick, concrete and other material, with similar loads dropped around the course and nearby.
Cook and Bell is said to have paid Rusper Leisure £100 a load for the tonnes of waste left on and around the greens in the second half of 2018.
The investigation also discovered waste used to create more embankments and stockpiled close to woods on the edge of the golf course and in the club’s car park. Builders’ waste was mixed in with some of the soil.
No meaningful checks
Jamie Hamilton, the senior environmental crime officer who led the investigation for the Environment Agency, said: “Companies must ensure the Environment Agency authorises any tipping of waste in advance. Cook and Son and Bell and Sons, both established operators, discarded the waste over five months without making any meaningful checks the golf course could accept it.”
When interviewed, Rusper Leisure’s company secretary, Sara Blunden, was said to have told investigators she “didn’t know the work needed a permit from the Environment Agency”, claiming she believed planning permission from Mole Valley “was enough” to bring waste onto the golf course.
Duncan Bell, a director with Bell and Sons, told the Environment Agency he “didn’t check” if an environmental permit was needed for the work when told planning permission was in place for raising the bund, nor is he thought to have checked where his company’s lorries were dumping the waste.
Christopher Cook, of Cook and Son, admitted his drivers left waste on the course and that he’d taken “no further steps” to find out if the site had a permit from the Environment Agency, beyond asking Bell if the site was legal for that purpose.
Lacking detail
Of the associated waste transfer notes, EA has said that many lacked “crucial detail”, such as a description of the waste, where on the course it was placed, and if it was hazardous or not.
District judge Tessa Szagun fined Rusper Leisure £2,000 for running a waste operation at the golf club with no environmental permit. Costs were £3,000.
For dumping banned waste, Cook and Son was fined £24,000, with costs of £12,500. Bell and Sons Construction was fined £12,000. Costs were £8,000. All three were given victim surcharge fees of £170.
For not having an environment permit, the Environment Agency charged Rusper Leisure with breaching regulation 12(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. Cook and Son and Bell and Sons Construction were both charged with breaching section 33(1)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, in relation to the dumped waste.
Rusper Golf Club has since closed.
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