(UK) A Wallington-based company has been fined £30,000 at Croydon magistrates’ court for failing to clear a site they owned of waste following numerous warnings.
Spark Properties Ltd was convicted of breaching the Environmental Protection Act 1990 by failing to clear the site of illegal waste in the heart of Croydon’s big-name retail parks. The Environment Agency brought the case after the company ignored an Environment Agency enforcement order to clear the site.
In August 2022, Croydon Council reported major illegal dumping of waste at sites in their borough to the Environment Agency. This included waste dumped at 33 Imperial Way in July 2022. Environment Agency officers contacted the landowner, Spark Properties Ltd.
As the landowner, Spark Properties Ltd was legally obliged to clear the illegally dumped waste. Following regular correspondence with the company over nearly a year, and due to lack of progress in clearing the waste, investigators requested the company provide a plan on how they will clear the waste on 13 March 2023.
As The Environment Agency didn’t receive a response to this request, they served a “Section 59ZC” enforcement notice to the company on 31 March 2023. The notice gave the company two months to clear the site.
By 16 June 2023, there wasn’t any progress in clearing the waste, leading the Environment Agency to prosecute Spark Properties Ltd.
The company was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £18,840.28 and a victim surcharge of £2,000.
What you’ll get: