Also dumped was discarded office equipment, unsold stock, former shop displays and containers of hazardous materials such as paint, timber preservatives and adhesives. The waste was behind a bund of earth and waste tyres.
A larger area of landfill, containing an estimated 6,200 tonnes of waste, including 200 sheets of asbestos, was found on an adjoining part of the site. Materials were also disposed of by burning in a large pit.
In June 2009, video footage taken from a helicopter showed a huge and previously unknown stockpile of waste in a wooded valley near the River Fowey on land belonging to Trago Mills. The stockpile contained substantial amounts of wood including pallets and furniture, timber, tree cuttings, rubble and cardboard packaging.
The area was one kilometre from the main Trago Mills store at Liskeard and was out of sight of the public. During a visit later in the year, Agency officers found the remains of a huge fire. The illegal burning of waste had taken place over an area measuring 20metres x 10 m and in places the ash was waist deep. Burnt materials included plastics, tyres and treated wood that would have produced polluting and toxic smoke.
Company
A court heard Trago Mills had an annual turnover of 85 million in 2008 and made a pre-tax profit of 4 million. The company has worked with the Environment Agency to remove the illegally dumped waste. It employed extra staff to help recover and sort the waste and claims the clean-up operation has cost the business almost 500,000.
“The company had recycling schemes in place, but avoided costs by illegal dumping”
Dave Brogden, Environment Agency
Trago Mills uses its location in the unspoilt Devon countryside to market its out-of-town stores and leisure parks. You would think such a company would do all it could to protect these locations. Instead, it dumped thousands of tonnes of waste and showed an unacceptable disregard for the environment, Dave Brogden for the Environment Agency.
From our investigations it was clear these illegal operations had taken place over a lengthy period of time and involved thousands of tonnes of waste. The company had recycling schemes in place, but avoided costs by illegal dumping, said Dave Brogden.
The clean-up costs at the Newton Abbot site had been high because the mixed wastes had to be segregated and any contaminated material disposed of separately. The operation took several months. There was no system for recycling wood from the Liskeard site after 2005. Instead of paying for skip hire, waste timber generated over a 12 month period was burnt on a huge bonfire.
Appearing before Torquay magistrates on Wednesday (September 28), Trago Mills (South Devon) Limited and Charles Robertson (Developments) Limited were fined a total of 185,000 after pleading guilty to a five offences of illegally depositing and disposing of waste at sites near Newton Abbot and Liskeard. They were also ordered to pay 14,558 costs and ordered to pay 30 victim surcharge.
The court imposed fines of 37,000 for each of the five offences, two of which related to the illegal disposal of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health. All five offences breached Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
‘Reckless’
Chairman of the bench, Chris Rodgers, said: We believe these offences were a reckless breach of the law and not an isolated lapse. The company failed to respond to advice it was given by the Environment Agency.
Earlier in the hearing, Mr Rodgers said it beggared belief the site manager at Newton Abbot did not walk the site on a daily basis to see what was happening. He said it was unacceptable that senior management did not know about the landfilling at Newton Abbot and burning of waste at Liskeard.
The investigation involved the Environment Agencys Regional Environmental Crime Team that deals with serious waste offences and other environmental crimes.
Video of footage of the illegal waste at the Trago Mills site at Liskeard can be seen on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/user/EnvironmentAgencyTV#p/a/u/0/UBINZlm9A78
When contacted, Trago mills said it was not able to comment at this time.
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