Two major fires and a pollution incident – these were the consequences of alleged waste management failures at the now closed recycling facility which used to trade as Lawrence Recycling and Waste Management Ltd. As a result, former Lawrence Skip Hire Ltd directors David Lawrence and Andrew Gibson have been handed suspended prison sentences and community punishment orders at Worcester Crown Court.
According to the Environment Agency (EA), the business stored excessive quantities of waste at its Kidderminster site between August 2012 and December 2012 in breach of the company’s environmental permit and in spite of warnings from the agency.
“These failures to properly assess the risk of fire and manage the waste appropriately on the site culminated in a serious fire, when waste self-combusted at the company premises in December 2012,” noted the EA.
“In spite of that fire and further warnings from the Environment Agency and Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, the company continued to accept and store thousands of tonnes of waste to avoid the cost of disposal and in a way that put the environment at risk. These further failures led to a second fire at the site in June 2013.”
It was noted that the 2012 blaze burned for nearly a week while the following one went on for eight weeks. Not only did the smoke in the second event significantly impact air quality but water used to fight the fire was also contaminated by the burning waste and flowed into the nearby Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.
“The contaminated water that entered the canal in June 2013 resulted in the deaths of 3,000 fish and threatened drinking water supplies,” recalled the agency. “Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service described the fires as two of the biggest firefighting operations it had ever had to deal with.
“The company did not have buildings insurance after the first fire, and went into administration in September 2013, leaving the Environment Agency, Fire Service, Wyre Forest District Council, and Worcester County Council to pay thousands of pounds to demolish the building, extinguish the fire, and control pollution until the site was eventually sold.”
Meanwhile the pollution incident was categorised by court sentencing guidelines as being at the highest level.
Lawrence, who served as company operations director and designated technically competent manager, was sentenced to a nine-month imprisonment, suspended for two years, and was also ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work. Ex-chairman and sales director Gibson, meanwhile, received jail time of four and a half months, also suspended for two years, as well as the penalty of completing 90 hours of unpaid work.
“These directors operated their waste recycling facility in a way that blighted the community with flies, vermin, and odour, and put people’s health and businesses at risk by not adequately assessing and controlling the risks of fire,” commented an EA spokesperson on the case.
“They continued to operate with flagrant disregard after the first fire with no insurance and no fund set aside to manage these risks, leaving the taxpayer to pick up the bill when an incident occurred and creating misery for their neighbours.”
