The Environment Agency (EA) has found almost 5,000 tyres illegally hidden in the walls of a Burnley mill.
The site, at Oxford Mill, Oxford Road, Burnley, had been left derelict ‘for a long period of time’. The EA launched an investigation after receiving reports that the empty property may be being used to illegally store waste.
An EA statement reveals that, after noticing that tyres were visible from the roadside through a broken window, agency officers discovered a false wall inside the property. Behind it were stored around 4,800 tyres, ‘creating a significant fire risk and putting residents and businesses nearby in danger’.
An spokesperson for the EA said: “If these tyres were set alight, perhaps through vandalism or by accident, the fire would have been very difficult to put out. It would also have produced a vast range of substances, many of which could harm the environment or human health.”
The EA, in conjunction with Burnley Borough Council, Lancashire Fire and Rescue and the mill’s new owner, were able to ensure that the tyres were ‘swiftly and safely disposed of’.
However, because the mill had been derelict for so long, the EA states that its investigators were unable to determine who may have been responsible for the illegal storage of the tyres.
The EA has recently been taking action on waste crime amid fears of ‘highly organised’ criminal activity in illegal waste disposal. It comes as the EA discovered 1,500 tonnes of household and business waste illegally disguised as hay bales on farmland in Essex.
In order to tackle illegal waste activity, in March 2013 new guidelines were issued to courts asking them to introduce harsher fines for those found guilty of environmental crimes.
The Sentencing Council stated that it hoped the guidelines would see fines match the seriousness of the offence, so that offenders ‘are hit in the pocket as well as deterred from committing more crime’.
Speaking at the time, Peter Chapman, Chairman of the Magistrates’ Association‘s Sentencing Committee said: “Offences such as fly tipping and the dumping of waste blight urban communities and picturesque beauty spots alike. With this guideline, magistrates will have the confidence to impose consistent sentences that will punish wrongdoing and satisfy the concerns of the communities who suffer from it.”
Read more about waste law.
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