Tyre company fined over waste disposal

A Staffordshire tyre company has been fined after it failed in its duty of care to ensure waste was disposed of correctly.

Sue's Tyres Limited, based in North Street, Cannock, failed to provide waste transfer notices.

These should have shown the council's environmental health department it was properly disposing of waste tyres. As a result, the firm was given a £300 fixed penalty notice by the council but it failed to pay. Sue's Tyres was fined £540 for failing to provide the waste transfer notices.

Stafford Magistrates also fined the firm £90 as costs of £491 and a victim surcharge of £15 – a total of £1,136.

The total could have been a lot higher but the company was given a 10 per cent discount for changing its not guilty plea to guilty.

The Environmental Health team had written to all companies that handle waste tyres in the district as part of its environmental enforcement action plan to reduce the number of fly-tipped tyres in the district.

This will be checked again later in the year.

The council has no reason to believe the company was fly-tipping but it was acting as a waste broker without the required documentation.

The council has urged businesses and residents that if they pass waste to a third party, they must check if they are licensed to carry waste.

It advises people to call the Environment Agency on 08708 506506 to do this. If waste is dumped and traced back to the source, then the business or resident is liable for prosecution for failing in their duty of care.

The maximum fine for flytipping is £50,000 and/or five years in prison.

The maximum fine for giving waste to someone who then fly-tips it is £5,000.

Councillor Tony Williams, Cannock Chase Council environmental sustainability leader said: "The Environmental Health department's enforcement action plan ensures that the council pro-actively works to prevent flytipping across the district. The investigation into waste tyre companies is one element of this.

"It is vital that businesses and residents check."