Fly-tipping pair to pay out £900 each
TWO men have been given fines and costs totalling more than £900 each after both pleaded guilty to depositing waste at a fly-tipping hotspot near their homes in Briton Ferry.
John Locke, 36, and Andrew Harris, 39, both of Wharf Road, Briton Ferry, pleaded guilty at Swansea Magistrates’ Court to depositing waste which included garden waste, a table tennis table, wooden units, and plant pots, on land at Wharf Road where no environmental permit was in place.
Neath Port Talbot Council received a complaint about the waste having been dumped on February 19 last year and members of the council’s waste enforcement team investigated.
The area where the waste was found was known to waste enforcement officers.
They regarded it as a
“hot spot” for fly-tipping, with numerous investigations having taken place into waste dumping there.
Enquiries led the officers to the house of a man in Southgate, Gower, who had engaged Locke and Harris, through the business John’s Tree and Garden Services, to carry out garden work, lay a patio and a front path, do some planting in the garden, to take the moss off the roof of his house and to remove waste from his property.
After pleading guilty to depositing waste on land at Wharf Road without an environmental permit, both Locke and Harris were each fined £480, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £48, plus prosecution costs of £406.
Councillor Ted Latham, Neath Port Talbot Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for streetscene and engineering, said: “This case shows once again this council will not hesitate to take to court those who seriously damage our environment by fly-tipping.”