Flintshire Council faces £800k bill for clearing illegal Queensferry tip

 

An illegal super-tip in Queensferry has landed Flintshire County Council with a clean-up bill of almost £800,000.

In December officers gained approval from Flintshire County Council’s full cabinet to spend £402,000 clearing 1,200 tonnes of illegally dumped waste from the unlicensed rubbish tip on Riverside Way.

But that cost has now doubled after the clean-up team discovered more waste on site than previously estimated.

Clearing the site was made a priority after a major fire in November placed families living on the neighbouring authorised traveller site at risk.

Councillors originally agreed to use money from Flintshire’s dwindling reserves to fund the clean-up operation, with an officers recommendation that the money should be recovered through a fine issued to those responsible as part of a legal prosecution by Natural Resources Wales and North Wales Police.

At the time Cllr David Coggins Cogan of Gwernaffield and Gwernymynydd raised concerns about spending so much of the council’s reserve on a project where cost recovery was not certain.

“Audit Wales have issued a significant red flag commenting on our lack of reserves,” he said. “Taking such a significant amount makes me nervous.”

Now the authority’s intention to claw back that money now seems to have slipped even further away after the true cost was revealed.

Officers have revealed to Flintshire’s Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee the true cost of the clean-up operation in the latest Revenue Budget Monitoring Report.

The report stated that significantly more waste was found at the dump than previously thought.

“The volume of waste is higher than estimated, and in addition all
waste must be sorted, weighed and taken to appropriate licensed waste
facilities,” said the report. “As such the associated costs have increased significantly and the potential full cost of disposal, clearing and securing the site is now estimated to be between £780,000 and £800,000.

“It is recommended that an additional £380,000 is approved from the contingency reserve to fund these additional costs.”

The report again stated that the council would seek to recover the clean-up costs from anyone successfully prosecuted in connection with the illegal dump.

Damien Hughes, Corporate Manager for Capital Programmes and Assets explained: “This is a commercial illegal activity. The site is now clear and secure. It has been blocked up with boulders and concrete blocks and the damaged fencing has been repaired.

“We now have agreed weekly visits through the traveller team and fortnightly formal visits. It’s a very challenging piece of land for us. It’s very remote, it’s not overlooked so you can’t see it and we have to physically get people out to do the formal checks.

“We are clear on the cost as we have had to weigh all the lorries taking the waste away to be processed elsewhere at authorised dumps.”

During the committee meeting Hope Cllr Gladys Healey questioned officers over the recovery of the clean-up costs.

“I know it is very hard to trace,” she said. “The clean-up charge here is a lot. But there is nothing here to say that we have fined anyone yet?”

But officers did not offer any additional explanation.

Following the meeting neither Flintshire County Council nor Natural Resources Wales were able to shed any light on the progress of the investigation or the prospect of recovering any or all of the money spent by the council on the operation.

“We are currently investigating a waste deposit at a site in Queensferry,” said a spokesperson for Natural Resources Wales. “This investigation is ongoing, and if any offences are identified, we will take appropriate enforcement action.”

A Flintshire County Council spokesperson said: “As there is an ongoing investigation, it is not appropriate to comment at this time, however, the council will explore every opportunity to recover its costs.”

By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter