According to a statement from the Agency, Martin Robert Hindmarsh, 47, and his company B8 Waste Management Limited were fined and ordered to pay costs totalling nearly £26’000 for running an illegal waste site in Middlesbrough.
Mr Hindmarsh was also banned from being a company director for two years and ordered to clear the waste site by the end of this year.
He pleaded guilty to operating a waste site without a permit, failing to produce waste transfer notes, and failing to comply with the notice to clear the site of waste. The company pleaded guilty to operating a waste site without a permit.
Advice
In 2021, according to the EA, Hindmarsh submitted a request for advice to the Environment Agency, which indicated he wanted to operate a waste transfer station at the Middlesbrough site. The Agency said it replied saying “that activities must not start without an environmental permit in place.”
The Environment Agency, in October of 2021 received reports of vermin and large quantities of waste being kept onsite. The Agency sent officers to the scene and although the site was locked at the time, the officers reported there was around 100 tonnes of mixed commercial and domestic waste including fridges and freezers. At the time of the reports there was no environmental permit for the site, the EA said.
Mr Hindmarsh, according to the statement, was ordered to clear the site and the Environment Agency reports they gave him numerous chances to do so. When he failed to comply, the regulator said it sent an official notice in May 2022 ordering him to clear the site by 24 July which was also not complied with. On 6 December a second notice was issued ordering that all waste transfer notes be produced.
To date both notices issued by the Environment Agency relating to the clearance of the site and production of waste transfer notes has not been complied with.
Convictions
The conviction of Mr Hindmarsh follows two other convictions announced by the Environment Agency in the last week.
Stephen Coates, 58, was handed a suspended sentence after the taxpayer spent £125,000 cleaning up a site he ran (see letsrecycle.com story), while a company was fined more than £25,000, and ordered to pay £17,000 in costs, for failing to get an environmental permit before removing waste from a site it acquired (see letsrecycle.com story).
Register for free to comment