Director sentenced for Essex waste wood storage

The site at Thoby Priory in Brentwood, Essex burned for two months creating thick smoke, according to the Environment Agency.

Last week (18 May), Chelmsford Crown Court sentenced Joshua John O’Malley, to 15 months in prison suspended for two years after he earlier pleaded guilty to running the site.

He was also disqualified as a director for 10 years. Mr O’Malley was not ordered to pay any prosecution costs due to his financial situation.

As director of Creative Developments and Construction Limited, a company no longer operating, the Agency claimed that Mr O’Malley had been responsible for stacking the site so full of waste wood that there was little room for vehicles to manoeuvre.

Visits

Prosecutors told the court that Agency and Fire Service officers had repeatedly visited the site in the three months between its opening in May 2014 and the fire in August.

A statutory notice was served on the company by the Environment Agency on 25 July requiring the wood to be removed by 20 August and evidence to be provided showing that it had been disposed of legitimately. On 18 August around 5,000 tonnes of material stored at the site caught fire.

According to the Environment Agency Mr O’Malley’s company had registered six exemptions to operate the unit at Thoby Priory and advertised for waste wood when it opened. One of the exemptions that allows chipping, shredding, cutting and pulverising of certain wood waste was deregistered by the Agency on 10 June.

Costs to the Environment Agency for its part in controlling the pollution were more than £223,000, it was claimed.

Fire

The court was told that waste wood and MDF covered around 85% of the yard and was up to 15-metres high. A report from the Fire Service, compiled as part of the investigation, stated that it had not been possible to limit the spread of the fire or create a fire break as there was one large single stack of wood.

It was also claimed that when the fire service went to the site to conduct an audit none of the staff on site had sufficient knowledge or position of responsibility to answer the questions, and Mr O’Malley had told investigators he was probably too busy to attend the audit.

After the hearing Environment Agency officer Darren Smith said: “The company was paid to take the waste, filled the site with it and then abandoned the site. The company and director made a significant profit from their operations. We will always do our best to track down, stop from operating and prosecute those responsible who try to carry out similar operations as we have already done so elsewhere in Essex.”

Mr O’Malley could not be reached for comment.