Waste crime is never far from the news. Hot on the heels of the Government announcing its plans to tackle the growing burden posed by waste crime, the judgement handed down by the High Court in the Stone and another v Environment Agency case should come as no surprise.
Stone was a director at a company, owners of a site which hosted a waste business operated by a Mr Quinsey. Among other things, the site recycled mattresses. When the Environment Agency served Quinsey with an Enforcement Notice, he ceased trading. However, circa 20,000 mattresses remained on the premises. The Environment Agency claimed that Stone’s company had knowingly permitted a waste operation to continue at the site, which Stone argued was merely a ‘clean-up operation’.
The magistrates held that the storage of the mattresses constituted a “waste operation” under the Environmental Permitting Regime and Stone’s company was convicted for knowingly permitting the operation of a regulated facility without an environmental permit, among other offences. The appeal by Stone in the High Court failed, showing that there is no substitute for due diligence when entering into an arrangement with a third party.
To read the full article, as featured in a recent edition of the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) newsletter, please click here.
Should you wish to discuss a waste or planning issue, please get in touch with Alex Madden or a member of Planning team.
