Business fined for Bonfire Night blaze

A building company has been fined for burning waste illegally on Bonfire Night.

Today (17 September) at Sunderland Magistrates’ Court, Elm Builders Limited was fined £2,000 for the blaze on 5 November 2008.

The company, of Staithes Road, Patterson South Industrial Estate, Washington, Tyne and Wear, also was ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £1,863 and a victim surcharge of £15. It had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Craig Burman, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court the company holds an environmental permit for its unit at Patterson South Industrial Estate, which prohibits any burning of waste at the site.

The permit requires the company to inform the Environment Agency immediately if there is a fire on the site.

Mr Burman said a fire was reported at the site on 5 November 2008. When the fire service attended, firefighters were told it was a bonfire for staff which had been notified in advance to the service, although it had no record of this.

Firefighters were busy and left the flames to burn but returned later in the evening to put out the fire, which took two hours. Company representatives were unco-operative with the fire service.

At 9.30pm, the burning embers were 14m long, 10m wide and 4m high and the fire was described as a “significant” size, and far larger than a usual display bonfire.

When company director Colin Milner was interviewed under caution on 15 January 2009, he said he had a bonfire every 5 November because it was a British tradition and did not think he was doing anything wrong.

Mr Milner had lit the fire at 5pm and said he informed the fire service in advance but accepted he had not told the Environment Agency, and was aware of the ban on fires at the premises.

The court heard the fire was made up of timber from a demolition job and no mixed waste was included from the site. The company disputed the size of the fire.

Mr Milner’s initially unco-operative attitude during the incident was an aggravating feature of the case, although the court accepted that he used his machinery to help to extinguish the fire.

In mitigation, the court heard the company had not saved any disposal costs by burning the waste.

Elm Builders Limited was charged with one offence, that on or about 5 November 2008, it did
fail to comply with or did contravene environmental permit conditions namely conditions 4.3.1
and 4.3.2 of permit 64142 in that it burned waste namely waste wood on land at 22B Staithes
Road, Patterson South Industrial Estate, Washington and failed to immediately notify the
Environment Agency of the fire.

Contrary to Regulation 38(1)(b) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007.