Environment Agency | A company has been ordered to pay almost £10,000 for illegally storing asbestos waste in Northumberland in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency.
Reddem Ltd, based at Queens Road, Wooler, appeared at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court where it pleaded guilty to one offence under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 of operating an illegal waste site and another under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 of keeping or treating waste in a way likely to cause pollution to the environment or harm to human health by storing waste containing asbestos in open containers.
It was fined £4,000, ordered to pay costs of £4,000 and a victim surcharge of £1,600.
The court heard that the demolition company was running an illegal waste site at The Old Gas Works Yard, at South Road in Wooler, bringing construction and demolition waste containing asbestos to the site before onward transportation for disposal.
Asbestos is a controlled waste and must be stored double-bagged in sealed containers. Skips used to store asbestos must also be kept enclosed, and it must not be transferred between different skips or containers.
The company had no environmental permit, which is required to carry out most waste activity.
The court was told that the issue was first reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by a local resident who had regularly seen waste with the appearance of asbestos being brought onto the site and bulked into large containers.
In June 2023, an HSE Inspector attended the site to gather evidence. They spoke to a director of the company, who confirmed that asbestos cement was being moved around the site.
On 23 June 2023 the inspector served a prohibition notice to the company relating to asbestos disturbance and explained the activity must stop.
The same day, Environment Agency officers attended and saw nine skips which appeared to contain asbestos.
They issued a letter telling the company to stop the activity, and a formal notice requiring the land not to be disturbed until an inspection had taken place.
A joint site inspection took place on 30 June 2023 involving the HSE and Environment Agency, during which samples of waste were taken for analysis from six skips. It was later confirmed that all of the samples contained asbestos.
The Environment Agency’s investigation established that more than 40 tonnes of material containing asbestos was later removed to a properly permitted site for disposal.
