Waste operator Mark Edward Fuller has been sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for running an illegal waste site in North Runcton, Norfolk.
Norwich Crown Court heard that he ran the illegal site for more than a year from Manor Farm in Common Lane without planning permission and without an environmental permit to deposit, store, dispose and treat waste.
In September 2010 Norfolk County Council served an enforcement notice on Fuller requiring him to stop taking waste onto the land and processing the waste. The waste included construction and wood waste. The enforcement notice was issued because the unauthorised uses were in the open countryside and their scale, form and mass cause harm to the landscape and amenity.
The notice was appealed by Fuller in August 2011, the court heard, but the planning inspector upheld the enforcement notice.
Fuller then lodged an unsuccessful application for permission to appeal against the inspector’s decision with the High Court which delayed the effective date of the Enforcement Notice.
Mr Mark Watson, prosecuting on behalf of Norfolk County Council and the Environment Agency, told the court that despite correspondence, discussions, meetings and site visits by Environment Agency and Norfolk County Council officers, Fuller failed to respond to advice and continued to operate illegally.
In November 2012, Environment Agency and council officers inspected the site and found a large stockpile of wood waste, amounting to many thousands of tonnes and between 12 and 15 metres in height. Additionally there had been thousands of tonnes of waste soil and construction and demolition waste imported and stockpiled.
Fuller told investigating officers that he had not received the letters from the Environment Agency and said until officers visited him in November 2012, he thought the operation was legal.
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