Kicking up a stink to tackle blight of industrial rubbish
POLITICIANS RIP INTO AGENCY FOR FAILURE TO FIX PROBLEMS
INVASIONS of flies, foul smells and rubbish littering the streets are plaguing residents living near an industrial estate.
Their plight was highlighted in the House of Commons as MPs demanded the Environment Agency take action.
It’s the result partly of a deliberate decision to place residential estates and industrial areas side by side when Washington was built in the 1960s.
Sharon Hodgson, Labour MP for Washington and Sunderland West, said the experiment had failed and residents in the Teal Farm area of the town were suffering “endless problems”.
She was joined by MPs including Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham, and Liz Twist, MP for Blaydon, who said they also wanted the Environment Agency to take tougher action.
Ms Hodgson told the House of Commons that one constituent had opened the windows on an exceptionally warm day, and found that every single room in the house was inundated with flies.
Another complained of “smells that have to be experienced to be believed”, and wrote to the MP saying: “Nothing is done to compensate those of us who cannot eat, sit, play or venture into our gardens or onto our balconies or even dare to leave windows open when we are in or out of the house.”
And constituents complained of lorries carrying piles of waste which had not been secured properly, so that litter streamed onto the road.
One constituent complained: “The trees alongside the road have plastic streaming out in the wind dropped from lorries, and the verges are an absolute disgrace. It is no wonder fly tipping is on the increase as litter attracts litter”.
Ms Hodgson said the Environment Agency had sent officials to speak to her but the problems continued.
“This issue has gone on for many, many years with many, many complaints and investigations, resulting in significant resources being directed at addressing the problems by the Environment Agency, by my office and by the numerous councillors who have to deal with them week in, week out, trying to take up the cases on behalf of constituents.”
One firm had been fined £26,000 in January but the problem had been going on since April 2015.
She called on the Government to give the Environment Agency the power to issue on-the-spot fines.
Mr Jones described the Environment Agency as a “toothless tiger”.
And he said: “This is not just about the agency but about the fact that it does not work with other Government agencies, such as Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, to crack down on illegal activity – not just dumping, but avoidance of landfill tax and other taxes that should be going to the Exchequer.”
Ms Twist said the Environment Agency needed extra powers.
She said: “It is important that the Environment Agency has additional powers and ... the polluters – the people causing the problem – should pay for the time and resources put into resolving these problems.”
Environment Minister George Eustice said: “The Environment Agency has taken clear action in the North East in recent years. From the start of 2013 until the end of March 2018, it secured 126 prosecutions and 41 formal cautions in relation to waste offences.
“The agency has also made successful use of confiscation orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Orders to a value of nearly half a million pounds have been made. Moreover, since the summer of 2012, the agency has closed 372 illegal waste sites in the North East. This equates to over one illegal waste site per week. It has also investigated 2,226 reports of illegal waste sites, which is over one per day.”
An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We have a range of enforcement powers that we use to ensure that operators do not put the environment at risk. These include legal orders, permit suspension or revocation, and prosecution.
“If anyone sees any pollution, they are urged to report the matter to our incident hotline on 0800 807060 so we can investigate.”