A CONTROVERSIAL farmer who flouted environmental orders by dumping waste has been fined again.

John Leslie Allison, 73, appeared at Burnley Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to depositing waste on land and in the vicinity of Hubbs House Farm, Colne, without an environment permit between March and August this year.

Allison, of Southfield Lane, Colne, was fined £562, ordered to pay £5,933 prosecution costs and a £56 victim surcharge. He has been ordered to make the first payment of £500 within 21 days and pay the remaining balance within a year.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “The operation of this site without the controls put in place by an environmental permit risks harm to the environment and has caused considerable concern to a number of local residents.

“The Environment Agency is determined to make life hard for criminals. Our specialist crime unit uses intelligence to track and prosecute those involved in illegal waste activity and we rely on information from the public to bring those responsible to justice.”

Allison was last in court in 2017 when he admitted two counts of breaching an enforcement notice, one of contravening the requirements of an environmental permit and two of breaching the terms of a suspended sentence requirement.

Prosecuting that case, Rosalind Emsley-Smith told the court how EA officers had noticed an increase of waste on the Delves Lane site in September 2015. Over a number of separate areas of land there was household waste and builders waste. EA officer Gabriella Boca visited the site in October 2015 and noticed an increase in waste, which included pellets, builder's waste in bags, piles of bricks and wood.

Over the following eight months EA officers made a number of site visits and notices a large increase in waste deposits on the site.

Ms Emsley-Smith told the court that when the EA's interventions weren't working, Lancashire County Council's Trading Standards department took their own action.

In September 2016 Allison was sent stop notices warning him that he did not have planning permission to run a waste site. Officers visited the site the following months and discovered even more waste had been dumped on the site and he had taken no notice of the stop notice.

Defending Robert Elias said his client was vulnerable and had been the target of fly-tippers.

He said: "He's an isolated individual who is stubborn."