A wildlife haven and badger sett in an old quarry were damaged when Newquay farmer William Salmon dumped waste and excavation waste on the site.
Salmon, known as John, 62, of Trevemper Farm, Trevemper, Newquay, appeared before Truro Crown Court on Friday 26 July 2024 for sentence after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges involving depositing waste on the land he owned in Trerice near Newquay.
He was fined a total of £4,000 with £17,500 costs and ordered to pay £72,200.95 in a Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation, all to be paid within three months.
In addition, Salmon is required to pay approximately £250,000 to HMRC for landfill tax costs he should have paid earlier for the waste, as well as paying his own legal costs.
In the case brought by the Environment Agency, the court heard Salmon had created a track across farmland to gain access to a disused quarry. The quarry had become overgrown over decades and had been reclaimed by wildlife, including badgers that had developed a long-established sett at the site. Over several months, Salmon was responsible for infilling the quarry with construction waste and destroying the habitat that had developed there.
In the quarry investigators found construction and demolition waste that Salmon was paid to dispose of, including burnt rubbish
Salmon had registered a U1 exemption - this allows the use of specific types and quantities of clean waste materials in construction. Waste transfer notes supplied by Salmon indicated he had imported around 1,200 tonnes of waste brick and concrete from a site in Newquay to construct a track. He told officers that the waste they had seen tipped into the quarry had come from his own farm and that he thought he did not need any permissions or paperwork for this. However, Environment Agency investigators identified that construction and demolition waste had been imported from a housing development site for disposal at the site and that Salmon had been paid to take it away. Some waste had also been burnt there.
Judge Carr told Salmon:
You took a deliberate decision to use a disused quarry to deposit waste in breach of the environmental permitting regime.
When you were spoken to by the Environment Agency about the waste, you lied. The Environment Agency's investigation into your finances opened a Pandora's box.
Once you have misled a government agency, do not be surprised if they look under every rock. You have learned an extremely expensive lesson by breaching the environmental regime.
Richard Cloke of the Environment Agency said:
We won't hesitate to go after those who break laws designed to protect the environment.
In this case, Mr Salmon not only flouted the rules around disposal of waste, but he also did so with a flagrant disregard for wildlife.
Notes
Salmon was charged with:
- May 2020 operated a regulated activity not under or to the extent authorised by an environmental permit, namely the deposit of waste soils and construction and demolition wastes and the disposal by burning of wastes in a disused quarry on land formally forming part of a holding known as 'The Homestead' at Trerice, Newquay, Cornwall. Contrary to Regulations 12(1)(a) and 38(1) Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.
- On or about 30 May 2020 did fail to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(5) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that you did fail to provide when demanded under regulation 35(6) of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 copies of all written descriptions of waste delivered to land formally forming part of a holding known as 'The Homestead' at Trerice, Newquay. Contrary to s.34(5) and s.34(6) Environmental Protection Act 1990.
