A LEIGH man has been fined £2,000 after admitting to a waste offence committed at his farm.

John Stafford was also ordered to pay £1,002 in costs to the Environment Agency, which brought the prosecution.

Tracey Shaw, prosecuting, told Wigan Magistrates' Court how on October 2, 2002, the Agency received a report that waste was being taken to land at Walmsley's Farm, Green Lane, Leigh, and kept there.

An Agency officer visited the site and saw skips holding waste such as timber, tree cuttings, broken paving stones, plastic sheeting and household rubbish. The skips were marked "Isherwood's".

Ms Shaw explained to the court that anyone wishing to store waste in this way must have a waste management licence issued by the Environment Agency. Waste management licences are issued with appropriate conditions to ensure that the waste is stored safely prior to final disposal or recovery and without causing harm to the environment.

The Agency contacted the owner of the land, John Stafford, who confirmed that Nigel Isherwood was renting the land and using it to store skips. After a second visit to the site, the Agency contacted Isherwood about the skips and made it clear that storing waste there without a licence was illegal. The Agency told Isherwood that the waste must be taken to a licensed disposal site.

Isherwood said that he could clear the site in two or three days and that he would provide the Agency with waste transfer notes to prove that the waste had been disposed of legally at a licensed site. The Agency then told John Stafford what Isherwood intended to do.

However, when the Agency made further visits to Walmsley's Farm over the following weeks, waste was still being stored there. On October 22, 2002, the Agency served an enforcement notice on Isherwood requiring the removal of the waste within 28 days, but skips full of waste were still present at the farm five months later, before finally being removed in March 2003.

A court case is pending against Nigel Isherwood.