5 February 2007
COMBER MAN FINED £11,500 FOR WASTE OFFENCES
Mr Jimmy Seales (49) of Newtownards Road Comber was fined £11,500 plus court costs at Ards Magistrates' court today for waste offences.
On 20 August 2004 Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) officers investigated complaints of burning and the illegal depositing of controlled waste, at Newtownards Road, Comber. They found that part of the site was on fire but were prevented from conducting an inspection.
On 8 November EHS officers visited the same address and burning was observed on the site again and again officers were prevented from inspecting the site. The officers observed burning material that had been dumped down the side of the site onto the mud flats of the Comber River (part of an Area of Special Scienmtific Interest : ASSI).
On 11 June 2005 officers of EHS, Planning Service and the Police Service of Northern Ireland entered the site. On site were End of Life Vehicles (and their components), oil spills, piles of controlled waste such as insulation, scrap metal, wood, and construction/demolition waste in piles up to 4 metres high. The site also contained the remains of a large fire that was still burning and leachate was observed escaping from the site onto the ASSI.
Mr Seales pleaded guilty to one sample charge of keeping waste and was fined £10,000. He pleaded guilty to a further three charges of disposing controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health and was fined £500 on each.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. Mr Seales pleaded guilty and was fined for the following charges:
a. £10,000 for one charge of Article 4(1)b of The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. The charge related keeping controlled waste in or on land unless a waste management licence authorising the deposit is in force and the deposit in accordance with the licence.
b. £500 each for 3 charges of Article 4(1)c of The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. The charge related disposing of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health.
2. The controlled waste consisted of builders rubble, clay, scrap metal and End of Life vehicles.
3. "Leachate" means any liquid percolating through deposited waste and emitted from or contained within a landfill as defined in Regulation 2 Part 1 of the Landfill Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003.
4. An Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) is an area of land that has been identified by scientific survey as being of the highest degree of conservation value. They have a well-defined boundary and by and large remain in private ownership. The underlying philosophy is to achieve conservation by co-operation and in this, the part played by landowners is fully recognised and appreciated. In Northern Ireland the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 (NCALO) mandated Environment and Heritage Service to declare all areas of land as an ASSI where they need protection 'by reason of their flora, fauna or geological, physiographical or other features'. (The NCALO was superceded more recently by The Environment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 which came into effect on 3rd February 2003 and affords improved protection to ASSIs.)
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