THE former owner of the fire plagued site of a plastics recycling centre has appeared in court charged with environmental protection offences relating to the fire risk posed by the site.

Blackburn magistrates heard Rockliffe Works on Paterson Street, Blackburn, had been the site of four fires since August during which thousands of tonnes of waste plastic had gone up in flames, resulting in road closures and evacuation of nearby residents.

But the court was told all the fires had happened after the former owner of V10 Polymers, David Holt, had been evicted from the site ending his family’s 49 year tenure.

And Lisa Judge, defending, said it was important for the magistrates to know that in all those years during which the Holt family had run the site there had never been a fire.

It was also revealed in court that the site has now been purchased by an Isle of Man based company and that it has planning permission for 181 houses.

Holt, 50, of Gleneagles Drive, Brockhall Village, Old Langho, pleaded guilty to three charges brought by the Environment Agency relating to activity on the site between 2014 and 2016. He was committed on bail to Preston Crown Court to be sentenced after the magistrates ruled their powers of punishment were insufficient.

David Bradley, prosecuting, said Holt had been the sole active director over the period of the offences. He accepted he was in charge if the day to day running of the business and made all the decisions. The site was owned by Holts Developments Limited and both companies are now in liquidation.

Mr Bradley said the first fire at the site was a major blaze on August 28 and there had been others since.

“They came after the defendant had withdrawn from the site but what you are dealing with a situation brought about by the way the site was managed,” said Mr Bradley. “An Environment Agency Permit was issued for the site and officers worked closely with the defendant to try and improve the situation.”

He said stacks of waste plastics should had restricted dimensions and have six metre fire breaks between each stack which would help prevent the spread of fire and enable the fire service access to fight fires. Instead the stacks ran into each other and presented a major fire risk.

He said the Environment Agency had gone through all the correct procedures serving the appropriate notices and warnings and while inspectors did see limited areas of compliance they were also aware more waste material was coming onto the site.

“From time to time storage did improve but at no stage did it come anywhere near meeting the requirements,” said Mr Bradley.

In December 2015 a formal statutory notice was served which revoked the permit which should have had the effect of stopping operations on the site and requiring clearance of all waste. When inspectors called in March it was immediately obvious the site was in the same condition and recycling was still going on.

“The inspector’s view was that even then waste was still coming into the site,” said Mr Bradley.

He said Holt had always co-operated but there was a sense of him burying his head in the sand.

“He was always working on it and there was assurance that something was going to happen but it never did,” said Mr Bradley.

He said that since Holt ceased to have control of the site the Environment Agency had spent £21,000 having fire breaks cleared in areas of the site. The cost of clearing the site had been estimated at between £800,000 and £1million.

Miss Judge said her client had an otherwise unblemished character and took his appearance in court very seriously. She said he had battled hard to keep the family business afloat and he and his wife and children had not had a holiday since 2001.

“As the prosecution have said, he is not a fly-by-night operator,” said Miss Judge. “He is an extremely hard working family man who has done his best but has to accept he has failed. He tried to comply he just never quite got there, but that was not for want of trying.”

She said the site had been closed by the receivers at the end of July and up until then Holt had been paying for security and monitoring CCTV.

“In the 49 years his father and then my client had run the site they never had a fire,” said Miss Judge.

She said the business had carried out waste disposal for many household names and their clients had included Blackburn with Darwen Council. Market changes, dramatic increases in rates and insurance premiums had a catastrophic impact on the business.

“This man was fighting a battle he had no chance of winning but he kept on fighting,” said Miss Judge.

Police have revealed the fourth fire was thought to have been started deliberately.

Insp Abid Khan, urged anyone with information to come forward.

He said: “We believe this fire was caused deliberately and so if you have any information, or any CCTV which you may think could help us with our investigation into this and the previous fires, please get in touch on 101.”