Cleared at last: £2 million cost of removing notorious Brierley Hill rubbish heap

The mountain of waste at the former RDF site, off Moor Street, has been an infamous eyesore since 2009, after the firm allowed tonnes of waste to mount up.

The dispute over who was responsible went all the way up to the High Court, and in 2013 RDF company director Robert McNaughton was jailed for failing to remove it.

Yet even after this legal action the gigantic rubbish heap remained, much to the frustration of residents whose windows look over the site.

It has only been removed now after an agreement between the Environment Agency, the council and landowner, which saw the latter pick up the hefty £2 million bill.

The clear-up was overseen by the Environment Agency, and conducted by contractors Broad Environmental, with the equivalent of 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools removed over the past 10 months.

The final scraps of rubbish were removed by a digger on Thursday, leaving a clear expanse and empty warehouse which is expected to be developed into housing.

Among those at the site on the final day, was Marc Lidderth, environment manager at the Environment Agency.

"This is a fantastic news story for particularly the local community, who have been very supportive and patient while unfortunately we had to deal with this situation and the waste that was here," he said.

"In total there was 25,000 cubic metres of waste and to put that into context, that's around about the size of 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

"It's taken around about 10 months from when the contractors came in."

The team from contractors Broad Environmental, who were given the mammoth task of getting rid of all the rubbish, also made the unfortunate discovery that there was about 10,000 cubic metres more than initially thought, meaning that the whole operation has taken even more time.

There is relief though amongst the council and Environment Agency that the cost has not fallen on the public.

"The landowner has effectively paid for the complete removal of this waste from the site, which has meant there has been no expense to the taxpayer. The landowner has had to spend in the region of £2 million," said Mr Lidderth.

"This is clearly a strong reminder and warning to landowners out there about the consequences and ultimately the responsibility they have about clearing waste from their land," he continued, adding that they were seeing a rising number of organised but unauthorised waste sites right across the country.

Broad Environmental's operations manager Alistair Hilditch-Brown said that despite carrying out such removals nationwide, the gigantic pile at Brierley Hill was one of the most infamous.

"We work up and down the country, and this is the one always mentioned by anyone we work with," he said.

Mr Hilditch-Brown said that the heap was primarily construction and demolition waste, but that they also had to contend with harmful substances, filling skips with asbestos.

He is also pleased to see the now clear and junk-free site.

He added: "It's great to see it today. My team has worked really hard."

Also there was Nick Powell, head of environmental health and trading standards at Dudley Council, who said he was 'delighted'.

"Even though a man has gone to jail for it for a few months, the residents have had to put up with it for far longer. So I'm really happy for them," he said.

Mr Powell added that he expected the land would now be used for housing.

A scheme to build two modern housing blocks containing 94 flats were unveiled last year but stalled as a developer could not be attracted over fears they might be landed with the clean-up bill.