Firms fined over ‘stomach-churning’ waste

Waste firms have been fined over a huge mound of “stomach-churning” rubbish that “smelled like sewage”.

Company directors have also been sentenced in connection with what the Environment Agency said was almost 2,000 tonnes of abandoned waste.

The smell from the site on Shaw Road, Dudley, was also compared by the body to rotting vegetables.

It said dust covered cars while debris blocked guttering and affected air conditioning at nearby factory units.

Rowanoak Waste Services Ltd was fined £25,000 for breaching regulations.

At an earlier hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court, jurors found Rowanoak failed to comply with environmental permit conditions and enforcement notices.

The Environment Agency said the site was abandoned in 2016, but was still having an impact on neighbouring businesses, covering its vehicles and customers’ cars.

Former director Kevin Allan, 59, of Roundway Down, Perton, Wolverhampton, was convicted over his failure to comply with environmental permit conditions.

He was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. He was also disqualified as a company director for three years.

Ex-director Randle Hawkins, 59, of Quarry Brow, Upper Dudley, was convicted of failing to comply with a revocation notice requiring all waste to be moved from the site.

He was cleared of breaching permit conditions and enforcement notices, and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

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In February 2018, joint operator of the site, Mak Waste Ltd, admitted a failure to comply with the conditions of environmental permits there.

The firm has been fined £18,000, to be paid within 12 months.

A director, Brian McIntosh, 28, of Adams Hill, Bartley Green, Birmingham, who admitted the same charge, was given a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and was disqualified as a company director for five years.

Edward Venables, formerly Edward Boulton, 44, of Larkspur, Dosthill, Tamworth, was also a director of Mak Waste Ltd. He was found not guilty of three charges of failing to comply with environmental permit regulations, the Environment Agency said.

It said Allan, Hawkins and McIntosh had “shown a complete disregard for the local community, subjecting local businesses to months of misery”.

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