The boss of a West Yorkshire waste transfer station has been fined for illegally stockpiling waste.

David John Brotherton holds an environmental permit from the Environment Agency to keep and treat waste at his site at Ghyll Mill, Menston.

However, he exceeded the 60-tonne limit permitted on more than one occasion between June 2007 and April 2008, did not maintain site fencing and deposited waste in locations other than the designated areas.

At Leeds Magistrates’ Court yesterday (24 August), Brotherton, 55, of Tan House Farm, Newall Carr Road, Clifton, Otley, admitted three breaches of his environmental permit, offences the magistrates said were serious.

He was fined £2,500 for the first charge, with no separate penalties for the second and third charges, and ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £2,360.95 and a victim surcharge of £15.

Craig Burman, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said apart from the 60-tonne limit, the permit included other conditions restricting where waste could be deposited and requiring fences and gates at the site.

When environment officers visited the site on various dates between June 2007 and April 2008, they observed breaches of these conditions and offered Brotherton advice about how to rectify them.

In February 2008, Brotherton was served with a notice requiring him to comply with the terms of his permit.

The court heard by April 2008, Brotherton had still not reduced the amount of waste on site to the permitted 60 tonnes and more waste had been brought onto the premises.

Reasons he gave for failing to comply with the conditions included broken machinery, staff absence and rubbish tips being closed because of high winds.

Mr Burman said the ongoing and repeated breaches were an aggravating feature of the case, as was the failure to respond to advice or warnings from the Environment Agency.

He said Brotherton’s actions had been motivated financially and the poorly-managed waste posed a pollution risk to a nearby watercourse.
The court heard Brotherton had a number of previous waste-related convictions and had been unco-operative in dealing with the problems at Ghyll Mill.

In mitigation, the court was told there had been no environmental impact from the offences. Brotherton was given maximum credit for his early guilty pleas.

After hearing about Brotherton’s financial circumstances, the bench ordered him to pay the fine and costs at the rate of £50 per week.

Prior to April 2008, an environmental permit was known as a waste management licence.