A man has been prosecuted by the Environment Agency (EA) due to operating a waste facility without an environmental permit.

William Wellings, 37, from Telford, pleaded guilty to regulation 12 and 38 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.

He was fined £3,200 with over £2,900 in costs and a £120 victim surcharge.

Telford Magistrates' Court heard EA officers visited Hill Top Farm, Telford in 2013.

At the time, Mr Wellings was advised that in order to operate a waste transfer station at the site, he would need to obtain an environmental permit.

However, EA received a complaint about waste and odour at the site in March 2014.

-- Advertisement --

When officers visited, they found approximately 30 skips of various sizes stored around the site containing general household and clearance type waste, along with biodegradable material.

In addition, there was also a large pile of general construction and demolition type waste on the ground.

A cardboard box found within this waste contained the name of a local college.

Further investigations found that the college was having building work carried out, with some of its building waste had been collected by Mr Wellings.

Despite visits and written correspondence to Mr Wellings no environmental permit was in place or applied for at the Hill Top Farm site. The site was also not engineered to the standards required to prevent any harm occurring to the environment.

Speaking on the case, an EA officer said: "Waste crime is a serious offence with tough penalties as it can damage the environment, blight local communities and undermine those who operate legally. We offered advice to Mr Wellings to help him run his business legitimately while protecting the environment but he failed to take necessary action."

(LM/MH)