seems to be getting tougher for polluters since the ronment
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Agency was set up two-and-a-half years ago, but ers believe small hauliers who carry waste are being victimised.
? agency too zealous or is it simply cracking down on notorious )reakers? Guy Sheppard investigates.
cs suggest that the Environment Agency is .ving its policing of the storage, movement sumping of waste. Its latest annual report, last month, shows that the number of prosecutions increased by 30% over the year, with the total fines rising from to £625,705.
ers representing some of the hauliers investhe agency over the past year give a differion. Michael Cunningham, of Cunningham lackburn, says he has warned waste carrier t how "vicious" the organisation can be. "I are turning their attention too much to the ator who may perhaps need guidance as . being slammed into a court room," he .nviction for pollution is not going to help a ier in either getting his waste licence or . it."
am argues that, while the agency has to istence by bringing offenders to justice, it get operators who are least able to defend . "If they are not prosecuting anyone," he .ne is going to soy, 'what are you doing to • environment?'." Cunningham says the as to distinguish between people who . urpose, such as farmers who allow slurry . water courses, and those who make an istake in a transport yard.
ley, of Backhouse Solicitors, also in believes some operators are probably ised in the North-West. "There is a posthe police and the Environment Agency are n tip-offs by certain people in order to blems for competitors," he says. "If the ieves that particular companies are ingers, fair enough—but there seems to be at they don't take action against the people ing used as informers." points out that, even if an operator successred of a charge, his reputation can still be case to lose custom.
One case in which he was involved concerned Steve Parr Haulage, of Charley, Lancashire (CM 27 Aug-2 Sept). The company, which has 15 vehicles, was told to produce waste transfer notes for the Iwo years to February 1997. "My point was that the Environment Agency had no evidence that my client had carried controlled waste in that period," says Whalley. "If you don't know they carried controlled waste, how do you know they failed to produce a waste note?" Wigan magistrates accepted this argument, but the agency is now appealing against the decision.
Hauliers who have been investigated are reluctant to speak publicly. One says he lost business worth £20,000 a year after a customer was brought to court as a witness. "I pleaded not guilty and won the case," says the haulier, "but the customer has never been to me again. The damage was done." Another says the agency collected evidence by secretly filming his premises. "They spent £5,000 to find out I was tipping a small skip into a big skip inside an enclosed building," he says. "I did not think what I was doing was all that serious.. .it's using a sledge hammer to crack a nut."
Softer targets
The Environmental Services Association, which represents the waste industry, agrees that the agency tends to choose softer targets for investigation. Chief executive Peter Neill says: "Perhaps it's because there are not enough well-trained 'people on the ground. We would like to see them target resources at the illegal cowboys rather than the registered element which is trying to follow the rules."
The average fine for waste-related offences was £2,000 last year but the agency's annual report highlights offenders who had to pay considerably more. Hicks Haulage of Leeds was fined £16,000 plus costs of more than £1,000 for depositing and keeping controlled waste on land without a waste management licence. In another case Lanstar, of Caclisheod, near Manchester, was fined £24,000 and had to pay £8,517 costs for three offences of failing to provide a landfill operator with appropriate information about waste transferred to a site.
Environment Agency chief executive Gallagher wants fines to be higher. "We a continually disappointed over the low level fines for those who have damaged the enviro ment," he says. "We want fines that reflect the seriousne of the crime."
The agency denies that there is any particul targeting of hauliers. "It is fair to say that we a given tip-offs from time to time, but it does n seem to be more of an issue in the North-West says a spokesman. "It is not for us to :question t motives of someone who gets in touch. If they a flagging something up to us, whether it is a riv company or someone else, we will obvious investigate it." One reason that smaller hauliers might fe victimised is that the agency is simply doing better job than the enforcement agencies replaced in April 1996. Another reason suggested by James Weekley, spokesman f Shanks & McEwan Group, the UK's large independent waste management group. He so operators can only meet increasingly tou environmental standards by spending more monitoring waste, updating equipment an training staff. "It is expensive," he says, "an smaller companies are struggling. Some a going out of business and others are geltin taken over by larger businesses." Earlier this year, Shanks & McEwan took ov Liverpool-based Robinson Brothers (Dispos Services), mentioned in the Environment Agen report for being fined £10,000 for breaches of i waste management licence. "Now it is port Shanks & McEwan, it will fit in with the way operate," says Weekley.
WASTE REGULATION
Any carrier of controlled waste, which includes nontoxic materials, such as demolition waste, needs to register as a carrier. This costs £95 for the initial threeyear period and fines of up to £5,000 can be imposed for not registering.
• The Environment Agency, which covers England and Wales, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency are the registration authorities.
• The law says that all reasonable steps must be taken to keep waste safe. This duty of care applies to anyone who stores, transports, treats, recycles or disposes of waste, and unlimited fines can be imposed on offenders. • When waste is transferred from one person to another, both parties must fill in a transfer note which gives details of the type and volume of waste concerned and when and where the transfer took place.
• A free advisory leaflet, Waste Management, The Duty of Care, A Code of Practice (ISBN 0-11-753210-X), is available from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.