A company director from Culcheth is among three men sentenced after waste sites in Leigh and Bolton were found to be operating in serious breach of their environmental permits.
Gary Chadwick, of Culcheth Hall Drive, Warrington, was given two 14-week custodial sentences, both suspended for 18 months. He was a director of SC Chadwicks and Sons Ltd alongside his father, Sean Chadwick, and brother, Michael Chadwick.
Sean Chadwick, of Leigh, and Michael Chadwick, also of Leigh, were each handed a 10-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, along with two 14-week sentences suspended for the same period.
The Environment Agency brought the prosecution following an extensive investigation. Sean and Michael Chadwick pleaded guilty to three charges, covering permit breaches at both the Bolton and Leigh sites and failure to comply with an enforcement notice at Leigh. Gary Chadwick pleaded guilty to charges relating to the Leigh site.
The findings make grim reading. At the Bolton site, waste rose to around 5 metres, leaving too much material to process efficiently and making it unsafe for vehicles to move around. The site also presented significant pollution risks, including fire and odour.
There were 172 odour reports between 2014 and the site's closure, while eight fires were recorded between 2006 and 2013. Inspections by the Environment Agency and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service found that fire risks were not being managed in line with the site's fire prevention plans.
The underlying issue, according to the case, was that more waste was being brought in than removed, apparently for financial reasons. That is not waste management, it is simply piling up a problem and hoping somebody else gets the bill.
Environment Agency officers visited repeatedly, offering advice, guidance and warnings, as well as issuing statutory notices requiring improvements. The sites nevertheless remained non-compliant for much of the investigation, leaving them at high risk of pollution.
SC Chadwicks and Sons Ltd ceased trading in 2016 and abandoned the Bolton site. Bolton Council has since cleared it at an estimated cost of £3 million, meaning local taxpayers were left carrying a bill for a mess they did not create. Legitimate waste businesses are also understandably unimpressed when operators ignore the rules and undercut them.
Mark Easedale, an area environment manager for the Environment Agency, said the agency was committed to robust enforcement against those who break the law and put communities and the environment at risk.
He said the defendants had repeatedly failed to act on advice, warnings and statutory notices, adding that illegal operations could cause environmental harm, misery for residents and businesses, and considerable costs for taxpayers.
The suspended sentences recognise the seriousness of the offences while allowing the men to avoid immediate imprisonment. The wider lesson is rather less forgiving: environmental permits are not optional paperwork, and waste sites cannot be run on the principle that the taller the heap, the better the business.