Metal & Waste Recycling Ltd was fined 75,000 for two offences, ordered to pay 41,247 in legal costs and a 15 victim surcharge on Monday (December 19).
Woolwich Crown Court heard from Sailesh Mehta, barrister for the Environment Agency that the company who ran a recycling site from Oxestalls Road in Deptford, had continued to operate a scrap metal business, despite being unlicensed to do so since October 2009.
Noise
The problems date back to 2005 when residents began to complain to Lewisham council about the noise coming from the site. The Environment Agency became involved in 2008 following attending a public meeting of residents to discuss the site problems.
Residents registered many complaints about the company, one logging 70 incidents. These were mainly about noise coming from the various activities taking place on site including tipped loads on to the ground, cranes picking loads from the ground or vehicles and cranes with girders scraping and pushing metal into piles. Residents were also asked to record details of incidents themselves.
Complaints
Acting on these complaints the Environment Agency commissioned a specialist noise assessment which gathered evidence between July 2008 and January 2010. These assessments all concluded that noise levels from the scrap metal activities were reaching levels which were likely to cause complaints of nuisance through noise.
Despite these assessments being carried out, further visits by Environment Agency staff between March 2010 and July 2010 revealed that the companys noisy activities were continuing. These included loading and unloading metal, cranes dragging scrap along the ground and metal being dropped at great height on to larger piles of metal.
At these visits the company was seen handling scrap metal, including supermarket shopping trolleys, kitchen sinks and pipes. Small vans and trucks were continually coming on to the site, entering the weigh bridge and unloading contents on to the ground.
Statement
The company was invited but declined to be interviewed under caution and preferred to provide a detailed voluntary statement by the end of September 2010. The Environment Agency accepted this request but in the end no voluntary statement was received and this prosecution was commenced soon thereafter.
Environment crime officer Michael Real said: Im very pleased that the court has recognised the problems this site caused for nearby residents. I investigated the site, visited the residents and heard for myself the noise that they had been living and continued to live with. The scrap metal activities really did affect their quality of life over a long and sustained period.
We always seek to work with companies to help them operate within the law and we could not have done more than in this case. The company abused the generosity given to them by circumventing a deliberate breach of the law since October 2009. Although prosecution is the last resort, this company left us with no choice but to take the matter to the courts. This shows how seriously we take these matters and demonstrates that we will not allow unscrupulous companies to operate outside of the law.
Metal & Waste Recycling Ltd declined to comment.
Register for free to comment