Joseph Michael King pleaded guilty at Harlow Magistrates’ Court to running a waste site at Hythe Station Road, Colchester.

The court heard that King runs a skip hire business called King’s Skips or King’s Skip Hire and has a permit to carry waste but not to store or treat waste at the site. Mrs Anne-Lise McDonald, prosecuting, said before a permit can be granted a site has to conform to conditions to protect the environment.

Illegal waste transfer activities at the site first came to the attention of the Environment Agency when an investigation officer saw rubbish stored in skips and noticed that a makeshift incinerator had been made from two skips sandwiched together.

‘She left her business card and later received a call from King who said he had not realised he needed a permit’, said Mrs McDonald. ‘The officer explained the need for a permit and advised that he clear the site and apply for one’.

When the officer returned to the site a week later there was some evidence of waste being removed but there were skip lorries and waste being stored outside the gates. On a further visit a couple of weeks later there were more skips outside the gates and still waste on the site.

King was interviewed by Environment Agency officers when he said the site would be cleared but more than a month later waste was still being stored on site..

Mrs McDonald said that as King had a waste carriers registration he should have been aware of the need to be permitted.

King told the Environment Agency that he wanted to operate legally but was unaware of the requirements.

After the hearing Agency officer Jenny Martin said: ‘The environmental permitting regulations are in place to protect people and the environment from activities which could cause harm.

‘By avoiding the costs involved in obtaining a permit and working to the standards required, Mr King undermined the legitimate waste industry.’
 
King pleaded guilty to:

On land at Hythe Station Road, Colchester, Essex, you did operate a regulated facility for the deposit and storage of waste without being authorised by an environmental permit granted under Regulation 13 of the of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007.

Contrary to Regulation 12 and 38(1)(a) Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007