Dudley waste firm has permit revoked despite appeal

Oakham Environmental Waste & Recycling Centre, which ran a waste transfer station and skip business at Oak Farm, Kingswinford, had its permit revoked by the Environment Agency in May 2013 following a series of breaches.

The firm, which was originally granted the permit in January 2011, was found to be storing too much waste on site, had no technically competent manager, and had waste tipped and stored outside the appropriate bunkers and outside the permitted area, according to the Agency.

It was also claimed that Oakham Environmental had also failed to comply with a series of enforcement notices, and their lack of action resulted in a series of fires, the most recent of which occurred in February 2013.

Following rejection of the permit appeal the company has now been ordered to remove all of the waste from the site within six weeks.

Crackdown

The Environment Agency has claimed that it is cracking down on poorly performing waste sites by requiring operators to stop operations if they are not competent to run the sites properly.

By removing permits from operators, the Environment Agency says it is preventing further waste activities at such sites, even where prosecution cases have not begun. This is necessary to tackle problem sites and their impact on legitimate businesses and the environment, it claims.

Environment Agency officer Jonathan Hall prompted anyone concerned about the activity at a particular waste site to contact the authority.

He said: We will not tolerate operators who continually breach the conditions of their permits, or pose unacceptable risks to the environment. Were taking action against poorly performing waste sites because, in our opinion, these permit holders are not competent to operate in line with their permits and their operations pose a serious risk to the environment.

Failure to comply with an environmental permit is an offence and undermines those legitimate businesses which make sure they do comply.

When contacted by letsrecycle.com, Oakham Environmental Waste & Recycling Centre could not be reached for comment.