South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | June | 3
From the Gazette, first published Friday 3rd Jun 2005.
IF South Gloucestershire Council does not limit the amount of waste being composted at a farm in Old Sodbury, residents have threatened to bring legal action against the authority.
The action group set up to fight the compost site at Southcroft Farm argue that the amount of waste being disposed of has exceeded Environment Agency regulations by more than five times.
However, operator Green Waste Management Services and farmer Simon Mitchell told the Gazette that the extra waste is compost being used as a land bund which was requested by Cotswold Edge councillor Sue Hope. Spokeswoman for the firm Louise Gill said the bund hides the site from the A46 and contains litter. The company is now seeking clarification over the Environment Agency's regulations which state that until compost is applied to the land, it is still classed as waste.
Mrs Gill said: "It is common practice for on-farm composters to store compost to be applied to the land as agricultural needs demand."
A recent inspection by environment officer Jim Dadd found that more than the permitted 1,000 cubic metres - or 650 tonnes - is at the farm and the residents' action group believes that evidence is enough to warrant the council's intervention.
A spokesman for the group, who asked not to be named, told the Gazette: "We believe that council officers have failed to enforce their own planning controls and that the council should issue either an enforcement notice or a breach of condition notice."
TLT Solicitors, acting for the residents, has written to the council calling for an injunction to stop any more waste being dumped at the farm. The letter added: "Should the council decline to take enforcement action, our clients will reserve the right to judicially review the council's decision not to do so.
"We believe that the refusal of the council in this case would be sufficiently perverse so as to be unlawful."
Council spokeswoman Kirsty Steadman said: "We received the letter last Friday and are taking into account many of the points mentioned. "We have been monitoring the site for some time and will continue to address this as we investigate residents' concerns."
Mr Mitchell said when other similar sites had exceeded the waste limit they had been shut down by the Environment Agency. He added: "We have not been shut down.
"We have spent £5,500 on an odourising system and have done everything that has been asked of us.
"Are residents content with a substantial rise in their council tax if the council cannot meet its recycling targets?"
© Newsquest Media Group 2008