ESG Enforcement Tracker

Key facts:

The EA successfully prosecuted several individuals and corporates involved in a large-scale illegal dumping of waste at a site in Bignall End from March 2014 to June 2015 and another two sites in Crewe from October 2017 to March 2021.

The charges filed for offending on the Bignall End site were for contraventions of:

1. the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 in relation to operating regulated facilities on land without an environmental permit; and
2. the Environmental Protection Act 1990 by depositing controlled waste on the site without an environmental permit authorising the deposits.

The charges filed for offending on the Crewe sites from 3 October 2017 to 22 March 2021 were for contraventions of:

1. The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 in relation to operating a regulated facility, namely a waste operation for the storage of waste, without the benefit of an environmental permit and which exceeded the allowances of any waste exemptions; and
2. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 for depositing waste on land without the benefit of an environmental permit.

The deposit of 100,000 tonnes of waste on the Bignall End site was an eyesore and was found to cause Category 1 harm to the environment. It also had the potential to damage the gas distribution pipeline that passed under the site, which could have had catastrophic consequences. The deposit also led to the collapse of a culvert on the site, causing significant flooding to the land in heavy rain.

Sentences were handed down in September 2023 for the offending at the sites in Crewe and in April 2024 for the offending at the Bignall End site. A number of the individuals successfully prosecuted were directors and in addition to receiving custodial sentences, they were also disqualified from holding positions as directors for specified time periods.