Cornish farmer ordered to pay £340k following waste offences
7th August 2024
A wildlife haven and badger sett in an old quarry were damaged when a Newquay farmer dumped waste and excavation waste on the site, the Environment Agency said.
William Salmon of Trevemper Farm pleaded guilty to two charges involving depositing waste on land he owned in Trerice near Newquay.
The 62-year-old farmer was fined a total of £4,000 with £17,500 costs as well as £72,200.95 in a Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation.
He was also required to pay approximately £250,000 to HMRC for landfill tax costs he should have paid earlier for the waste, as well as paying his own legal costs, the EA confirmed.
Natural habitats destroyed
The court heard Mr Salmon had created a track across farmland to gain access to a disused quarry.
The quarry had become overgrown over decades and had been reclaimed by wildlife, including badgers that had developed a long-established sett at the site.
Over several months, the farmer was responsible for infilling the quarry with construction waste and destroying the habitat that had developed there.
Mr Salmon had registered a U1 exemption, which allows the use of specific types and quantities of clean waste materials in construction.
Waste transfer notes supplied by the farmer indicated he had imported around 1,200 tonnes of waste brick and concrete from a site in Newquay to construct a track.
He told officers that the waste they had seen tipped into the quarry had come from his own farm and that he thought he did not need any permissions or paperwork for this.
However, Environment Agency investigators identified that construction and demolition waste had been imported from a housing development site for disposal at the site and that Mr Salmon had been paid to take it away. Some waste had also been burnt there.
Extremely expensive lesson
Judge Carr told the farmer: “You took a deliberate decision to use a disused quarry to deposit waste in breach of the environmental permitting regime.
“When you were spoken to by the Environment Agency about the waste, you lied. The Environment Agency’s investigation into your finances opened a Pandora’s box.
“Once you have misled a government agency, do not be surprised if they look under every rock. You have learned an extremely expensive lesson by breaching the environmental regime.”
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