A RETIRED businessman jailed for illegal tipping at a Pendle quarry claims his plans to build a home there will prevent further unauthorised dumping.

Michael Kokocinski, 54, wants councillors to pass his full planning application to build a new home at Sansbury Quarry, on the Nelson/Colne boundary, when they meet next month.

Mr Kokocinski was given an eight month prison sentence at Burnley Crown Court in January after admitting allowing unauthorised tipping at the quarry.

The court was told he had lost his previous home at Brownhill Farm, Foxstones Lane, Cliviger, near Burnley, and was "a broken man."

But Mr Kokocinski, who has been released part way through his sentence, is prepared to fight to make a new home on the tip site.

He blamed fly-tippers for many of the problems at the isolated quarry, which was branded an environmental disaster by the Environment Agency, and said the only way of securing the hilltop site was for the council to grant permission for the house for himself and his wife. "I know the site wants clearing up and now we have the chance to do it," said Mr Kokocinski.

"We've got great plans for this place and it's important that Pendle Council gives us planning permission."

Mr Kokocinski was granted outline permission for a house on the site after winning an appeal in 1995.

Next month councillors will be asked to grant full permission for the house and associated landscaping of the tip.

Campaigners claim the clean-up bill for the site could run to millions of pounds which would have to be met from the public purse.

But Mr Kokocinski, who denied any hazardous waste had been dumped on the site, said: "I don't want any public money. We will resolve this without that. We're prepared to landscape the whole area."

Mr Kokocinki said the tip had been closed for 12 months and he had retired from the skip business.

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