A TAVISTOCK company was last week ordered to pay £6,000 in fines and costs after being convicted of two offences under the Environmental Protection Act.
Plymouth Magistrates heard that on September 29 last year, a plume of smoke led Environment Agency officers to Pitts Cleave Quarry near Tavistock, where lorry loads of green waste were being burned.
An employee claimed the waste had been generated on the site, owned by R P and S Heywood (Haulage). But on October 1, the Environment Agency received reports of several lorry loads of mixed green waste being delivered to the quarry.
The court heard checks showed that neither Edwin Stanley Heywood or Pitts Cleave Quarry held a waste management licence to receive, keep, treat or dispose of green waste.
Magistrates were told the waste, mainly ivy, came from the Springhill area of Tavistock, where South West Highways was removing vegetation from a wall. They heard the company had a verbal agreement with R P and S Heywood (Haulage) to dispose of waste at the quarry ? five lorry loads were illegally disposed of in this way.
R P and S Heywood (Haulage) of Pixon Lane was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 costs after being found guilty of two offences between September 29 and October 1, including depositing and disposing of waste at Pitts Cleave Quarry.
At a hearing earlier this year, South West Highways was ordered to pay £4,660 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to depositing waste on unlicensed land and failing to transfer waste to an authorised person.