Regarding the issue of waste being stored on the site above the legal limit. A local resident sent an e-mail to Tony Hawkes (Environment Agency officer responsible for Bromley), the mail to Mr Hawkes stated:

I am writing to complain about the lack of interest that Bromley Council and Veolia/Onyx have to their licence for this site.

In their licence it clearly states:

section 5.4.5 "No waste shall be stored to a height exceeding 3 metres in the main tipping area"

Yet as you can see in the attached photo, this is well above 3 metres and has been for the past couple of days, it also smells

I would like to know what you intend to do to rectify the situation.

I await your immediate response on this matter

The Environment Agencies response to this:

Unfortunately I am not always in the office, so have only just picked up your E-mail, however, I did speak to the site last Thursday, directly after I heard of your communication and I visited the site this morning.


As I am sure you will appreciate the currently problem is being caused by the usual catch-up of waste collection following the Easter holidays and the waste cannot be sent elsewhere. Site operatives are doing all they can to keep the waste on the move and while I was there three bulkers left for landfill. I am sure you will they are trying hard to deal with heavy input and unfortunately it is unlikely that this situation this will not be improved by the coming Bank Holiday weekend.


However, Onyx and myself will endeavour to ensure they try to get back to their normal levels as quickly as possible.

In respect of the odour situation, the waste will have been in bins/bags for a week or more and therefore slightly smellier than usual. Odouriser are on and dealing wth the problem as best they can.

Regards

In reply the Environment Agency was sent the following on 25/04/06:

As i sent you this email on 12/04/06, i dont understand why you have said "the currently problem is being caused by the usual catch-up of waste collection following the Easter holidays", because this was two weeks before the Easter holidays. It is not a one off as it has been going on from before Easter including today which is a week after Easter Onyx recently introduced their new way of disposing of waste which aids > recycling, however it is causing Onyx to breach their Waste Disposal
Licence and as such can you please detail what enforcement measures you are going to take to ensure that they comly with their licence. It is being Easter is not a defence. Please refer to http://www.waldoroadtip.co.uk/Overnight_Waste.htm which shows evidence of these breaches over a number of days.

I look forward to your prompt reply

Tony Hawks from the Enviroment Agency responded on 03/05/06:

As stated last week I am not always in the office to pick up E-Mails, so apologies for the delay.

This particular condition was included in the licence for operations that took place ten years ago, it was a standard that is now very much out of date with new licences and generally this licence is in need of major modification and redrafting, particulalrly now that the Civic Amenity site is separate.

However, when the condition re height was incorporated, the whole of the shed was used for the reception of domestic waste, which was spread around almost it's whole length. In meeting targets for recycling/recovery etc, Onyx have utilised the end areas of the shed for plastic, paper, glass etc and just used the most central area for tipping from dustcarts, generally the amounts of waste have not been greatly increased, just become more concentrated.

I will try to get back to Waldo before the end of the week and discuss this further, we can also discuss at our next meeting.

Once again apologies for the delay in writing back to you.

Resident response on 040506

Dear Mr Hawkes
In the absense of any "new" licence the existing one stands legally.
As such you should be inforcing this not making excuses for Onyx/Veolia and Bromley. It is your job as the Environment Agency Officer for this area to ensure that individuals and companies stick to the law. If you are not willing to do this then we will have no choice but to take this matter further

Mr Hawkes' response on 090506

I visited the site on Thursday 4/5 and will be there again tomorrow. Site operatives are doing their best to deal with the large input of waste, which is of course of their control. The amounts do not exceed the licence and as I explained before the loads are no longer spread along the whole shed, but confined to the more central area of the shed. I am anticipating the situation to have been improved over the weekend.

I am sure this will be discussed further at this weekend's meeting.