Majority of cash collected through waste enforcement fines came from Dudley firm's £24,000 fine
A £24,000 fine handed to a Black Country company for dumping acid-coated wheel parts along a residential street in Birmingham accounted for more than 90 per cent of cash collected through waste enforcement fines last year.
Wheel Furb Ltd, an Alloy Wheel Refurbishment Specialists based in Dudley, was handed the fine back in October after chemical waste was found deposited on Hyperion Road, Birmingham.
Residents found an overturned cage filled with alloy wheel shavings dipped in hazardous liquid and tied to a lamppost back in May 2020.
The acid from the parts had spilled on to the road, burning holes into the pavement and road tarmac.
Issued with three fines of £8,000 and £3,193 in costs, papers state: “Found guilty in their absence of three offences; one offence of failing to take measures to ensure waste was transferred to an authorised person in that an intermediate bulk container containing chemical waste from the business was found deposited on Hyperion Road, Birmingham.
“One offence of failing to comply with a notice requiring written information to be provided as to how waste, namely tyres and intermediate bulk containers produced at Wheel Furb Ltd, Unit 4 Stafford Street, Dudley was disposed.
“One offence of failing to provide information required by an authorised officer in the execution of his powers.”
And the money represented the majority of cash collected by the council through waste enforcement cases last year with just £3,117 in additional fines collected.
There were a total of 12 fines issued by the council in 2020 for ‘waste enforcement cases’, for offences ranging from failing to provide information to fly-tipping in public places.
One man was fined £342 for ‘knowingly causing bulky waste … to be deposited on Wolseley Drive’, while another pleaded guilty to one offence of ‘causing controlled waste, namely 10 bags of waste, to be deposited from a vehicle onto Burney Lane, Washwood Heath’.
An Aston man also pleaded guilty to one offence of 'being a producer of controlled waste and failing to ensure that the waste was transferred to an authorised person in that four black bags containing garage type waste, oily rags and empty boxes of mechanical parts, were found on Wolseley Drive, Birmingham’, while another was found guilty under the environmental protection act for depositing a mattress into an abandoned skip on Brickfield Road, Hay Mills.
