The Environment Agency have issued the following press release:
Prison sentence for ?cantankerous? land owner
Fines, unpaid work and land clearance also ordered
Land owner Roger Frederick Phipps has been sentenced to eight months imprisonment and ordered to carry out 180 hours unpaid work for allowing an illegal waste site to be run on his farm for years. He was also fined ?15,000 for breaching two planning enforcement notices.
The prison sentence was suspended for two years and Phipps has been ordered to remove the waste from the farm in four stages by 30 Jan 2014. He was also told to pay a contribution of ?20,000 towards prosecution costs.
Michelins Farm, Rayleigh did not have a waste permit nor planning permission to operate the site, Chelmsford Crown Court heard today (Tues).
The site was run without an environmental permit from April 2008-11.
Mr Mark Watson, prosecuting for the Environment Agency and Rochford District Council, said two enforcement notices had been served by the council on Phipps in 2002 for breaches of planning control at Michelins Farm.
He was told to stop storing tyres, vehicles, waste and caravans and to remove them. A separate notice required the removal of a lorry back and three mobile buildings. Since then only the mobile buildings have been removed.
The farm is on green belt land and was within a Landscape Improvement Area, the court was told.
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Mr Watson said that between December 2009 and June 2010 Essex County Fire Service attended 35 fires at Michelins Farm, mostly at night when thick black smoke was seen coming from the land.
Plastics, tyres, building materials and cylinders were seen in the fires. The fire service was concerned about the risk to adjoining highways, railways and power supplies.Environment Agency officers carried out covert surveillance in May 2010 and saw lorries taking waste into the site and at the same time saw smoke regularly coming from the farm.
Officers also went to the farm with police in June following a large fire with a plume of black smoke that could be seen from the A127.
?There was evidence that scrap metal had been removed from the fires and that other waste had been burned in breach of both environmental and planning rules,? he said.
Long windrows of burned material were found at the site as well as electrical, construction and plastic waste.
Phipps was arrested and questioned on 3 June 2010 and further interviewed on 19 July 2010 but offered no comment to questions, Mr Watson told the court.
Waste was still being stored and burned at the farm six months later despite several letters from the council about complying with the enforcement notices.
In mitigation, Mr Leon Kazakos accepted that his client Phipps had developed an entrenched view towards the authorities.
Judge David Turner QC said that although Phipps was an old age pensioner with a limited income, the site had a reasonably significant value and by selling it he would be able to raise the money needed to pay the fines and costs.
In sentencing Phipps, the judge said he had flouted environmental and planning law to a significant degree and for a considerable time and said that the pre-sentence report showed a lack of real acceptance of the situation. ?He took an entrenched position and was a cantankerous individual.?
After the hearing Environment Agency officer Kelly Short said: ?From photographs it is apparent that significant amounts of waste were taken onto site, stored, sorted and burned. The smoke caused a nuisance and in some cases could have harmed people?s health.
?Phipps knew he needed a permit to run the site but ignored our advice for years.?
?We continue to work closely with Rochford District Council to stop this site operating illegally.?
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Rochford District Council?s Portfolio Holder for Planning and Transportation, Councillor Keith Hudson said: ?Whilst the Council sees legal action as a last resort it will not stand for any breaches of planning regulations. Mr Phipps continued to ignore the planning enforcement notices issued which led to the joint prosecution between Rochford District Council and the Environment Agency.
We have demonstrated by the action that we have taken that Rochford District Council will defend the rights of all our Residents to be able to enjoy their homes and the District in which they live. I believe that the result of this prosecution sends a clear and concise message that this Council will do all that is necessary to ensure the continuing peace and happiness of our Residents by putting a stop to the inappropriate actions of a small minority of people who ignore the laws of the land?.Phipps pleaded guilty to:
COUNT 1 Guilty
ROGER FREDERICK PHIPPS between 20 June 2005 and 13 April 2011, being the owner and occupier of land at Michelins Farm, Arterial Road, Rayleigh, Essex (?the site?), caused or permitted the site to be used in contravention of an Enforcement Notice in relation to the site dated 20 March 2002 and as varied on 20 November 2002 (?Notice A?), in that (unconnected to the agricultural use of the site):
(a) tyres were stored on the site;
(b) vehicles (including cars, vans, stock cars, trailers, lorries and their backs/containers) were parked and stored on the site;
(c) waste materials including builders rubble, scrap metal, timber, disused fencing panels, vehicle parts including engines, disused plant, tanks and machinery, oil drums, wooden pallets, plastic containers/bottles, gas bottles, telegraph poles, plastic pipes and discarded window frames were stored on the site; and,
(d) caravans were parked in the open area of the site.COUNT 2 Guilty
ROGER FREDERICK PHIPPS between 20 June 2005 and 13 April 2011, being the owner of land at Michelins Farm, Arterial Road, Rayleigh, Essex (?the site?) and having been served with an Enforcement Notice in relation to the site dated 20 March 2002 and as varied on 20 November 2002 (?Notice A?), failed to comply with the steps required in Notice A in that:
(a) tyres;
(b) vehicles (including cars, vans, stock cars, trailers, lorries and their backs/containers);
(c) waste materials including builders rubble, scrap metal, timber, disused fencing panels, vehicle parts including engines, disused plant, tanks and machinery, oil drums, wooden pallets, plastic containers/bottles, gas bottles, telegraph poles, plastic pipes and discarded window frames; and,
(d) caravans;
unconnected with the agricultural use were not removed from the site.COUNT 3 Guilty
ROGER FREDERICK PHIPPS between 20 June 2005 and 13 April 2011, being the owner of land at Michelins Farm, Arterial Road, Rayleigh, Essex (?the site?) and having been served with an Enforcement Notice dated 21 March 2002 and as varied on 20 November 2002 (?Notice B1?), failed to comply with the steps required in Notice B1 in that the lorry back (blue in colour and marked ‘Transmec’ and ‘Europe Daily ? Thurrock’) in the approximate position indicated ‘W’ on the plan attached to Notice B1 was not removed from the site.
COUNT 7 Guilty
ROGER FREDERICK PHIPPS between 6 April 2010 and 13 April 2011 at Michelins Farm, Arterial Road, Rayleigh, Essex, did knowingly permit the operation a regulated facility for the deposit, storage, treatment and disposal of waste, without an environmental permit.
ENDS