North-west councils and Environmental Agency to pay £95,000 for failure to tackle illegal waste activities

The Environment Agency and two local authorities in the North West have been told to pay £95,000 in compensation to neighbours living next to an unauthorised waste site.

The recommendation was made by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, and a Local Government Ombudsman, Anne Seex, in a joint report entitled Environmentally Unfriendly.

The Environmental Agency, Lancashire County Council and Rossendale Borough Council were told to:

• Individually write to the complainants to apologise for the failings
• Make good any financial loss resulting from the frustration of Mrs D and her son’s plan to sell their property in 2005 (valued independently at £35,000)
• Pay compensation of £60,000 for the disruption to the complainants’ lives
• Put in place a joint agreement between the Agency and Lancashire CC on how they will work together to respond to illegal waste activities to prevent recurrence
• Determine whether any action, individually or jointly, is required to prevent a recurrence of such events.

The investigation found that the Agency and the councils had allowed illegal waste activities to go unchecked for a seven-year period. Between 2000 and 2007, thousands of tonnes of rubbish were dumped, burned and processed on farmland next to the home of Mrs D (not her real name) despite complaints.

The Ombudsmen said the three bodies failed to work together despite the existence of a national protocol which required a coordinated joint approach on waste enforcement.

Abraham said: “Our investigation found that the relevant authorities failed to take urgent or robust enforcement action, despite the very evident and unacceptable activities taking place on the neighbouring farm. Being able to undertake a joint investigation and issue a joint report with the Local Government Ombudsman has allowed us to consider maladministration and injustice in the round.”

The LGO added: “Anyone seeing the evidence of what happened on that land and of the devastation wrought on this beauty spot should be justifiably shocked and outraged that, despite all the legal safeguards in place, such events could actually happen.”

All three public bodies have accepted the report’s conclusions.