Gething donor’s environmental crimes date back 20 years

Martin Shipton

The businessman whose group donated £200,000 to Vaughan Gething has a 20-year history of breaking environmental laws, it has emerged.

Mr Gething’s reputation was first tarnished by his association with David Neal in February, when NationCymru revealed that two donations of £100k each had been made in successive months to his Welsh Labour leadership campaign by Mr Neal’s Dauson Environmental Group.

The staggering size of the sum was shocking in itself, raising concerns about the possibility of undue influence, but what made the perception even worse was that Mr Neal had been convicted on two occasions of dumping toxic sludge in the protected wetlands landscape of the Gwent Levels, and handed two suspended prison sentences.

Mr Gething’s reaction to the criticism our disclosure led to compounded his problems further. Instead of apologising for making an error of judgement, and repaying the £200k, he decided to defend his decision to accept Mr Neal’s money, arguing that in doing so he hadn’t broken any rules.

Solar energy plant

Further revelations quickly emerged. Mr Neal’s waste group was seeking planning permission to build a large solar energy plant on his site in Cardiff. NationCymru revealed that a company in the group had borrowed £400,000 from the Welsh Government-owned Development Bank of Wales, at a time when Mr Gething had oversight of the bank as Economy Minister.

Meanwhile residents living near Haverfordwest were angry with Mr Neal because of a nauseating smell emanating from the Withyhedge landfill site that he owns. Politicians, including the local Labour candidate Henry Tufnell, now the MP, put pressure on Natural Resources Wales, the regulator, to take enforcement action.

At the same time Public Health Wales advised residents that the levels of hydrogen sulphide in the air near the landfill site exceeded World Health Organisation guidelines and could lead to effects such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, watery eyes, stuffy nose, irritated throat, cough or wheeze, sleep problems and stress.

A Channel 4 Dispatches programme broadcast in June revealed that Mr Neal’s group was under investigation for allegedly “mischaracterising” categories of waste in order to minimise the payment of Landfill Disposals Tax. By claiming that waste was inert, the tax amounted to around £3 per tonne. The standard rate of tax for non-inert waste is more than £100 per tonne.

Landfill tax

Because the collection of landfill tax is devolved in Wales, it could be argued that money donated by Mr Neal’s group to Mr Gething’s leadership campaign in effect came from tax that should have been paid to the Welsh Government that he now leads.

It has now come to light that Mr Neal’s company Neal Soil Suppliers was investigated and prosecuted two decades ago for dumping soil contaminated with Japanese Knotweed on company land in Cardiff.

A report of a High Court case linked to the earlier prosecution revealed details of the prosecution. It said: “The facts can be put relatively shortly. The controlled waste concerned here was soil contaminated with Japanese Knotweed. Japanese Knotweed was imported to Britain and has been described as the most problematic invasive weed in the country, and it is a particular problem in south Wales. The Environment Agency has produced a Code of Practice advising on how to control Japanese Knotweed, including by means of the use of herbicides.

“The appellant [Neal Soil Suppliers] contracted to remove soil containing Japanese Knotweed from a development site in Cardiff, knowing that though the soil had been treated with a herbicide, it was still contaminated with Japanese Knotweed. At the time, it appears the appellant was negotiating with the Environment Agency for a licence to treat such soil on its land, but no such licence had been granted, and indeed ultimately, in 2006, the appellant dropped its application for such a licence.

“The soil was deposited in 2004 on the appellant’s land. The appellant’s intention was ultimately to recycle and reuse the soil as part of its overall soil business. This deposit was in breach of section 33 of the 1990 [Environmental Protection] Act, and indeed under that section, the appellant and the developer, McAlpines, were eventually prosecuted. Both pleaded guilty and the appellant was fined in June 2005 the sum of £4,500. A director of the appellant company was also fined.”

Disregard

A Labour insider said: “There is a pattern of behaviour by David Neal and the companies he owns that shows a disregard for environmental laws since at least 2004. Any money coming from him is tainted and by accepting such a large amount of money from him, Vaughan has brought himself and Welsh Labour into disrepute. He should repay the £200k to David Neal.”

Mr Gething does not accept that he did anything wrong in taking Mr Neal’s money and has said he has no intention of returning it.

Mr Neal has said little about the matter from his perspective, except to defend Mr Gething. In June he gave an interview to WalesOnline in which he tried to downplay the significance of his convictions.

However, the prosecution followed a year-long investigation by Natural Resources Wales, its predecessor the Environment Agency and South Wales Police.

District Judge Martin Brown, sitting at Cardiff Magistrates Court, heard that toxic liquids had leached into a reen, or adjacent water course.

Mr Neal pleaded guilty personally to breaches of environmental rules and also pleaded guilty on behalf of his two companies – Atlantic Recycling and Neal Soil Suppliers to depositing waste likely to cause pollution to the environment or harm to human health.

The companies were fined £50,000 each and £51,000 each in costs.

Judge Brown said of Atlantic Recycling’s case: “There was clearly the potential for serious pollution, but thankfully there were no long lasting adverse effects.”

However in the case of Neal Soil Suppliers – where dairy and food effluent was spread over a field – there had been “substantial and serious pollution”.