Scrapyard pays price for pollution breaches

Mar 12 2009 The Journal

SCRAPYARD operators have been fined £9,500 with £8,000 costs after they admitted breaking anti-pollution laws.

Blaydon Metals Ltd, of Factory Road, Blaydon, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to 12 offences under pollution prevention and control regulations in respect of breaches of its permit to operate an aluminium smelting furnace, which it used for melting scrap metal.

The company asked for 16 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Gateshead magistrates heard that the furnace was regularly inspected by environmental health officers since July 2005. All the inspections showed that the furnace was in breach of the company’s permit conditions.

But the company continued to use the furnace and repeatedly delayed taking action to correct its problems, it was said.

Anneliese Hutchinson, head of regulatory services for Gateshead Council, said after the case: “We have spent the last four years trying to get this company to obey the law and to behave like a responsible business, but they have absolutely refused to co-operate. They have chosen to ignore our repeated warnings and now they have paid the price. In addition, they have been required to spend around £300,000 to ensure that their operations now comply with the law.

“This conviction should serve as a warning to other businesses that they need to take their responsibility to the environment as seriously as we do.”

The company’s conviction followed complaints from the public and from neighbouring businesses about fumes - mostly noxious compounds, particulates and hydrogen chloride emitted by the Blaydon Metals site.

In evidence, Gateshead Council submitted video footage photographed by one of its enforcement officers showing how traffic on the A695 dual carriageway had been forced to brake and slow down because of smoke and fumes blowing across the road.

Gateshead Council had already issued eight formal cautions for breaches of conditions in February 1998 and had taken enforcement action against the company on numerous occasions since.