SWINDON politicians have vowed to work with the Environment Agency to ensure the council is not left to clean up the mess caused by Swindon Skips.

It was revealed on Tuesday that the council could be left with a £2m bill if the owner of the site fails to comply with an order by the Environment Agency.

Swindon Skips and Averies Recycling, which are both owned by Lee Averies, have been told by the Environment Agency they must have the sites cleared by early next year or face prosecution.

If they do not comply then the responsibility falls to the land owner, which in the case of Swindon Skips, in Brindley Close, is owned by the council.

Both sites have had major fires within the last year and have been the source of much controversy.

There have been calls for the town’s MPs to step in and yesterday both Justin Tomlinson, the North Swindon MP, and Robert Buckland, the South Swindon MP, said they will act.

Justin said: “It is absolutely right that the Environment Agency have taken this action.

“Averies has lost all public trust in their operations and we will be pressing the Environment Agency to take appropriate action in terms of cleaning up. We feel strongly this is not a cost the council should be bearing.

“Both myself and Robert have asked the Environment Agency to work with us to find ways to tighten up the laws to make sure they can intervene quicker, which in the case of Swindon would have made a big difference.”

Robert said: “It is right that the Environment Agency called time on this company which has a less than spectacular record locally, to say the least. There was a lot of concern fromr esidents, including myself, about their operations.

“It is very important the council is not exposed to the costs and Justin and myself will be doing what we can to make sure this is not the case.”

Mark Dempsey, Labour’s prospective Parliamentary candidate for North Swindon, said: “The news that the Averies Waste Crisis could end up costing Swindon taxpayers £2m raises serious questions about how the council managed this affair.

“I want to know why the council did not step in as landlord to force Averies’ company to stop this site getting into this state. It is concerning that the council has allowed this to happen.”