£700k cost of Averies Skips blaze clear-up landed on council

Brothers Lee and David Averies appeared at Swindon Crown Court today for sentencing after earlier admitting 'by their consent, connivance or neglect' allowing their companies to breach the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

More than 750 tonnes of wood and waste caught fire and burned for a week in November 2013, causing huge disruption to neighbouring firms and delays to trains on the nearby rail line.

The company and director Lee Averies were ordered to clear the site of 7,000 tonnes of rubbish but the firm went into liquidation because of outstanding liabilities.

It meant their landlord, the borough council, was lumbered with the clear up cost.

A council spokesman said the bill amounted to £700,000 but would have been double that if it had not been able to send some of the waste to the nearby solid municipal waste plant to be converted into fuel.

Eight months later a second fire at the Averies’ Marshgate recycling site burned for 57 days and the smoke affected surrounding businesses so badly at times they had to close.

Thousands of tonnes of waste smouldered for weeks after the initial blaze, which started on July 21, 2014, and firefighters had to remove waste from the Swindon site so they had room to work.

Sailesh Mehta, prosecuting, said the two-month Marshgate blaze caused a great deal of harm to many local residents and businesses.

Mr Mehta said Lee Averies, 47, of The Marsh, Wanborough and David, 39, of Dydale Road ignored warnings from the Environment Agency, fire brigade, local residents, and even Network Rail, whose tracks run close to one of the sites.

The court heard when in 2013 the firm was convicted of similar offences and part of the sentence was a memorandum of agreement to carry out certain work at the site to prevent future incidents but in reality he simply paid ‘lip service’ to it.

But he said they continued operating, making money from bringing waste on to the sites, but not disposing of it properly, which is a major cost.

However he said the fires at the sites meant that hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of waste went up in smoke, effectively saving them money.

In the run up to the Brindley Close business collapsing Mr Mehta said it was noted that rubbish was piling up there and further warnings were issued about it.

He said that there was now a concern that a similar issue may arise at Calne Aggregate Holdings Ltd’s site at Abberd Lane in the town.

As well as the fires he said there was also pollution of neighbouring water courses, as well as dust particles and odour from the sites.

Prashant Popat QC, for Lee, said his client had moved into the recycling industry after being made redundant as an architect, and gained qualifications in waste management.

Far from making huge sums from the business he said he had put in £2m of his own money which was now lost.

He said he is a single man living in a rented house having earned £36,000 a year as a director of Calne Aggregates.

“He is deeply sorry for his failings: he recognises, as he has said, that he failed to operate and manage the sites at Brindley Close, Marshgate and Calne and he will be haunted by, and always will, by that failure,” said Mr Popat.

He said it is not the prosecution case that the fires were caused by the defendants.

In the past Lee Averies has been barred from being a company director for a year when he was bankrupt and may now be disqualified as a result of a company’s liquidation.

Oliver Campbell QC, for David, said he accepts there were serious failings in the running of the businesses.

“He is aware that the fires caused significant environmental harm to people,” he said.

“As you see from his statement he apologises to the court for these failings and may I repeat that apology on his behalf now.”

He said his client was not ‘the dominant force’ in the running of the businesses as he was not qualified in waste management.

Judge Sir John Royce adjourned the case and will pass sentence on the brothers today.