Gloucestershire waste firm fined (From Gazette Series)

Smiths fined for dumping waste on Avon Ring Road

11:05am Wednesday 1st February 2012 in Yate and Sodbury news By Alexandra Womack

A WASTE company has been fined for allowing waste to litter the Avon Ring Road.

Construction and waste management firm Smiths, based in Gloucester, was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs totalling £18,336 and a £15 victim surcharge at a hearing at Northavon Magistrates Court.

The case was brought after environment officers from South Gloucestershire Council caught three of the company's drivers allowing waste to escape from their vehicles on five separate occasions during a two-week awareness campaign in March 2010.

Driver Rodney Burford, 45, of Folbs Lane, Little Dean near Cinderford, was found guilty on two counts of failing to take reasonable measures to prevent the escape of controlled waste from his vehicle and was given a six month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £400 costs.

Roger Harper, 54, of Kewstoke Road, Weston-Super-Mare, was found guilty of failing to take reasonable measures to prevent the escape of controlled waste from his vehicle and was given a six month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £200 costs.

Alun Williams, 57, of Langridge Way, Weston-Super-Mare, was found guilty on two counts of failing to take reasonable measures to prevent the escape of controlled waste from his vehicle and was given a six month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £400 costs.

The council, which spends £50,000 a year clearing the Avon Ring Road, said the case highlighted inadequacies in the company’s methods to prevent waste from littering the road or monitoring what procedures are being used. Cllr James Hunt, executive member for communities, said: "We will continue to monitor this stretch of road and any individuals or companies who continue to blight our environment will be treated with the same zero tolerance approach highlighted by this case.

"This case should also emphasise the importance to companies to have clear policies and procedures in place backed with checks and balances to ensure that equipment designed to keep waste in the vehicles is maintained to a high standard, and that loads are checked carefully before taking to the road, to ensure that waste cannot escape."