Waste4Fuel High Court hearing adjourned

A legal case against the operators of the Waste4Fuel RDF site in Orpington over the storage of waste bales at the premises in Kent was adjourned at the High Court in London yesterday (May 7).

Waste4Fuel Ltd, former company director Bryan Hughes, new company director Shelley Hurst, and site manager Jonathan Beckson face charges relating to the firms alleged failure to comply with an order to install fire breaks and separate areas for new waste at its Cornwall Drive site in Orpington.

At the first two days of the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice this week (May 6-7), the Agency opened its legal argument against the company and the case will now continue into third and fourth day.

However, the remainder of the hearing has been adjourned until at least June 2014 for the rest of the case to be heard, although no dates have been scheduled or approved by the court.

Waste4Fuel which collects and sorts waste such as tyres, plastics, cardboard, metals and paper at the site for processing into a refuse derived fuel (RDF) originally had its environmental permit suspended on April 22 2013 due to thousands of tonnes waste being illegally stored and a number of fires at the site.

The fires and high volumes of waste have led to complaints from local residents and the company was given a most recent deadline of May 1 2014 by the Agency to remove all combustible waste, which has been left at the Cornwall Drive site for more than a year.

Monitor

Jon Griffin, waste team leader at the Environment Agency, said: As far as we are concerned, the site should operate in accordance with the final terms of the Court Order issued last November, meaning we expect the site operators to remove combustible waste from the site.

Between now and the next appearance at the High Court, our officers will continue to monitor Waste4Fuels compliance with the original Court Order closely.

Former director Bryan Hughes left Waste4Fuel in February when the company came under new ownership, and current managing director, Shelley Hurst, has previously told letsrecycle.com that she was confident of getting all the waste removed from the site.

However, it was revealed in April that Bromley council is seeking a county court injunction to stop waste being stored by the firm around the Cornwall Drive site (see letsrecycle.com story).