Quarry owner moves onto site after waste dumping

The owner of a quarry in West Yorkshire that is being investigated for suspected illegal waste dumping has said he has moved onto the site to prevent any disposals.

Frank Spencer, owner of Calder Quarry in Elland, said he had a stroke at the end of last year and was "completely unaware" of illegal dumping at the site. He said the area had now been cleared.

The Environment Agency (EA) began investigating the Calderdale quarry last year and obtained a court order to block access to the site earlier this month.

The EA said it was "stepping up" its action on waste crime and anyone breaching the restriction order was committing a criminal offence.

Spencer said: "It's always been a problem going back 16 years with people fly-tipping on the lane and coming on the site, now I'm living here and keeping an eye on it as best we can.

"We did have a tipper firm come in supposedly hardcoring the roads and they ended up bringing dirt material.

"I think there was nine 90 cubic metre tipper loads that we had to get moved, I'm just worried that all the neighbourhood will be thinking it's still here."

Spencer added that anyone was welcome to come to the site and "have a look".

Jane, who lives near the site, said there were at least 10-20 lorry loads dumping rubbish there each day.

"It is a nasty smell, I couldn't describe it but it's not nice," she said.

"It was terrible, the lorries were coming continually, pretty big ones, the tipper lorries.

"At school times they just continued to go past, they were blocking the road. There just wasn't room for them.

"They parked across the road, nobody could get past, it was absolute chaos.

"The lorries always had covers on so you couldn't see in. It was a bit cheeky."

Meanwhile Graham Smelt, who regularly walks around Cromwell Bottom, a nature reserve near the quarry, said: "We are planning to walk down there and we would rather not see rubbish and maybe smell the rubbish, it would be far better to see the countryside."

Manjinder Singh, who runs a shop at the bottom of the road, said he was also concerned about the impact it would have on the environment and the safety of children at the nearby school.

"It is very scenic, the environment is just absolutely beautiful and this is going to have a big impact on the environment. It's not on.

"It's criminal, you have a school just down there, right near where it is happening."

A court order is now in place preventing the dumping of waste at Calder Quarry.

The restriction order bans waste from being imported onto the site and access to the land is also prohibited, subject to certain exceptions.

The order was obtained at West Yorkshire Magistrates' Court on 3 September and will be in place for six months.

Ben Hocking, Yorkshire Area Environment Manager for the EA, said this was an example of illegal waste dumping on an "industrial scale".

He said: "Residents should not have to put up with everything that comes with illegal waste dumps, including the awful smells.

"Although there has been significant improvements the reason we've served the restriction order is we want to do everything that we reasonably can within our powers to prevent any further deposits of waste.

"We acted on reports from the community and our inspections confirmed further waste had been dumped at the site in recent weeks. We've taken action to shut it down while our criminal investigation continues."

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