Cash strapped council to spend £400k on illegal waste dump clean-up

Alec Doyle – Local democracy reporter

A £400,000 clean-up operation at an illegal waste dump is being funded by a cash strapped council – with no guarantee it will ever recover the cost.

The cabinet has approved the funding of work to clear the sprawling unlicensed tip site in Queensferry of around 1,200 tonnes of waste.

The site, on Riverside Way, was last month at the centre of a major fire which placed residents in the neighbouring traveller site at risk.

The cost of the clean-up is £402,000, which Flintshire County Council officers state they will seek to recover when those responsible for the illegal tip are identified and prosecuted.

Concerns

But there are no guarantees that a prosecution will be successful – nor if those responsible are found will have the ability to pay.

Some councillors are now concerned the authority, which this week revealed its budget gap had grown from £38.4m to £47.5m despite significant cuts, has been left exposed to storms or unexpected events this winter.

Its contingency reserves – the money it keeps aside for unexpected costs – now sits at just £381,000. That is the money it uses to deal with the consequences of incidents like flooding, storm damage or other unforeseen events.

Legal action

Corporate Finance Manager, Gary Ferguson, told Flintshire’s Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee: “The only place we’ve got to fund that additional spend (for the tip clean-up) is the contingency reserve.”

Natural Resources Wales (NRW), supported by North Wales Police, are investigating the tip and who is responsible for it.

But while officers’ recommendation to councillors included a provision to recover costs through legal action, it is not certain at this stage that any money will actually be recovered.

In a statement NRW said: “We are currently investigating a waste deposit at a site in Queensferry. This investigation is ongoing and if any offences are identified, we will take appropriate enforcement action.”

‘Red flag’

Councillor David Coggins Cogan of Gwernaffield and Gwernymynydd told the committee he was concerned about the decision to dip into the council’s meagre reserves.

“Audit Wales have issued a significant red flag commenting on our lack of reserves,” he said. “Taking such a significant amount makes me nervous, especially as we’ve already had storms and there may be more.”

Deputy chairman of the committee Cllr Jason Shallcross added: “I know we hope to reclaim some of the funding back but what can we do to stop this happening again? It sounds like tipping on an industrial scale.”

Damien Hughes, corporate manager for capital and assets, assured councillors that the site was now secure.

“We are working with the police and fire service and housing officers also regularly attend the neighbouring site,” he said.

“The site has been target hardened so it’s got CCTV and we’ve got concrete blocks,” he said. “It does form part of an NRW and police investigation and I will be linking with the police and NRW to understand the scale of fines that are available to us as an authority.”