Man ordered to clear illegal waste site

A man who failed to clear illegally dumped waste from a site in North Yorkshire has been ordered to remove the rubbish.

Oliver Henry Alexander King, 52, of Bedale, piled up waste, including fridges, wood and material from demolition sites, on land near allotments at Oran Lane in Catterick, according to the Environment Agency (EA).

The waste risked polluting a nearby watercourse or causing a fire, an EA spokesperson said.

At York Magistrates' Court on Friday, King pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a notice to clear waste from the site and was sentenced to 110 hours of unpaid work, as well as being told to pay costs of £5,422 and a victim surcharge of £114.

He was also ordered to clear the site of waste by 21 March and warned he could face further action if he failed to comply.

The court had been told that King rented the land and the site was visited by EA officers in June 2023 after reports illegal waste was being dumped there.

The EA wrote to King asking him to stop bringing waste on to the site and to start clearing it immediately.

On a following visit, officers found that while some of the waste had been removed, most was still there by a deadline date of 23 August 2024.

King said he had stopped bringing waste to the site after the EA's first visit, but could not afford to remove it and had planned to sell a property he owned to pay for the clearance.

After King's sentencing, Ian Foster, EA area environment manager, said the waste "posed a risk of contamination and fire".

"King was given a number of opportunities to clear the site of waste, but failed to comply with the instructions from our officers," he said.

"Illegal activity such as this undermines legitimate businesses that work hard to operate within the regulations, as well as putting the environment at risk and impacting on the local community."

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