Skip firm brothers ran illegal dump in Todmorden (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Skip firm brothers ran illegal dump in Todmorden

6:00pm Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News By Peter Magill, Chief reporter

FOUR people have been convicted of running an illegal waste transfer station just yards from village homes.

Brothers Mark and Jason Butterworth were the main movers behind the rogue firm at Springwood Mill in Cornholme, Bradford Crown Court was told.

An investigation by the Environment Agency, stretching over two years, uncovered a string of irregularities at the Pudsey Road site.

Not only did the company not have permits to sift through waste but they stored skips on neighbouring streets in a bid to divert attention from the mill.

Prosecutors said that waste was also stored at a separate site in Eldon Street, Todmorden, as far back as October 2010.

Agency bosses say Springwood Trading, the Butterworth brothers’ trading arm, was permitted to collect waste skips for delivery to authorised sites.

But director Mark Butterworth continued to operate the illegal Springwood Mill operation despite receiving a 2010 conviction for the same offence.

He claimed he was not directly involved with the running of the company at the time.

Mark Butterworth, 51, of Mytholmroyd, near Hebden Bridge, admitted two charges of knowingly permitting the operation of a waste facility without an appropriate permit.

He was also found guilty of four offences of operating a regulated facility without a permit, three of depositing controlled waste, and one of failing to provide waste transfer notes after being served notice to do so.

Jason Butterworth, 46, of Industrial Street, Todmorden, admitted five offences of operating a waste facility without a permit and three charges of depositing controlled waste illegally.

Company secretary Jayne Hoyland, 47, also of Mytholmroyd, and Leanne Wormald, 37, of Underbank Avenue, Hebden Bridge, said to have set up a charity, Youth Skills Project, in a bid to seek exemption from Springwood’s waste management requirement, were convicted of related offences. Wormald was given a suspended prison sentence and the Butterworths and Hoyland will be sentenced at Bradford on April 12.

Speaking after the case Paul Glasby, an EA environmental crime officer, said those who ‘repeatedly flout the rules’ will be prosecuted.