A Hampshire waste management firm has been fined £72,000 after it treated sewage on a farm without a permit, despite knowing that they were acting illegally.
Cleansing Services Group Ltd appeared before Bristol magistrates’ court on 18 January for sentencing on a charge of failing to comply with an exemption for the storage of sewage sludge.
The large company, based at Fareham, in Hampshire, operates throughout the country.
The court heard that the company was contracted to treat sewage waste at Kingsdown Farm, in Longbridge Deverill, near Warminster, in Wiltshire.
An investigation by the Environment Agency during October 2020 found that the firm did not have the legally-required permits to screen sewage before it entered tanks ready for spreading on land.
A skip at the farm contained sewage “rag,” including gloves and plastic. The landowner was not involved in the work and was unaware of the unpermitted screening activities.
In a written submission, the company accepted that no permit was in place at the site for the screening and removal of debris before storage and later injection of the sludge into the land. They described this as an “oversight.”
But it had previously applied for a judicial review of what constituted treatment requiring a permit in relation to section 3 exemptions, and whether the removal of rag was in fact a treatment requiring a permit.
In a judgment handed down in February 2019, Lord Justice Rafferty concluded: “The screening process carried out by the claimant to remove debris from the sludge is unquestionably a form of treatment.”
And, in his view, it was not particularly burdensome to arrange for the screening of debris in sludge at an appropriately-permitted treatment facility.
Following the court hearing, Stephanie Marriott, of the Environment Agency, said: "Cleansing Services Group operates nationwide, and as a large company that had gone to the trouble of applying for a judicial review, knew full well they were acting illegally at this farm.
"As a regulator, the Environment Agency will not hesitate to pursue companies that fail to meet their obligations to the environment."
Cleansing Services Group was fined £72,127 and ordered to pay £9,827 in costs and £180 statutory surcharge.
The company pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
