Waste firm is ordered to stop work on sites
A waste firm in Darlaston will be forced to leave two sites being used without the correct planning permission following a ruling from the Planning Inspectorate.
Walsall Council served enforcement notices more than 10 months ago which required AB Waste to stop operations on the sites within a specified time.
But any further action against the firm, which has been blamed for dust settling on headstones at James Bridge Cemetery, was delayed after the notices were appealed.
The Planning Inspectorate recently visited the sites of the former Railway Tavern, in Kendricks Road, and the former Junction Works site, off Cemetery Road, and has now ruled in the council's favour and dismissed both appeals.
The Junction Works notice, served on September 21 last year, gave a month from the notice taking effect to stop bringing materials in and six months to process it, remove stockpiles and leave.
A second, for the former Railway Tavern site, being used as a car park and storage, was served on landowners and the firm on October 23 and required the firm to leave within three months.
An appeal was lodged for the old Railway Tavern site on the grounds that more time was needed to comply with the enforcement notice, but inspector Katie Peerless said it would not take more than three months to clear skips and containers remaining on the land.
She viewed there was no need to extend the period of time for compliance.
Delivering the ruling for the former Junction Works site, Ms Peerless said: "The appellant has failed to demonstrate, on the balance of probabilities, that those areas of the appeal site without specific planning permission for a waste use have been in such a use for 10 years or more prior to the issue of the enforcement notice."
She also ruled that one area, whilst having planning permission for a waste transfer station, was not authorised to process builders' waste into hardcore and aggregates.
The council said that action was due to land use being harmful through appearance, noise, traffic and dust spreading to the cemetery.
The company was ordered to pay more than £13,000 by Walsall Magistrates Court in September 2011 after admitting six counts of failing to comply with permit requirements.
More than a dozen relatives visiting loved ones' graves at James Bridge Cemetery said they were forced to wash down headstones as they were covered in grime from AB Waste Management Limited. The firm declined to comment.
