Glynneath News and Views Facebook Group 

Clyde Baker FB post  20 November 2020

 GNAV-CBAK  STHO  DRIC

The following Facebook discussion took place on the Glynneath News and Views group following Neath Port Talbot shutting down the Enzo Homes development at Heol-y-Glyn Glynneath after he broke 14 conditions. The discussion between members of the group and residents was joined after a few days by Enzo Sauro, the developer. 

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Section 34(9) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990

Waste duty of care: code of practice

The duty of care legislation makes provision for the safe management of waste to protect human health and the environment.

This Code applies to you if you import, produce, carry, keep, treat, dispose of or, as a dealer or broker have control of, certain waste in England or Wales.

Failure to comply with the duty of care is an offence with no upper limit on the courts’ power to fine. In some instances a fixed penalty notice may be issued for failure to comply with the duty of care in place of prosecution. The Code is admissible as evidence in legal proceedings for Section 34(1) offences and its rules must be taken into account where relevant to questions raised in the case.

If your waste activities are authorised or registered in Scotland or Northern Ireland but you deal with waste in England or Wales, you need to follow this Code. If you operate across borders, you need to follow Scotland’s and Northern Ireland’s codes of practice alongside this one.

The regulators for the duty of care are the Environment Agency (EA) in England, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in Wales and local authorities.

2.1 Duty of care: who it applies to

The duty of care applies to anyone who imports, produces, carries, keeps, treats, disposes of, or are a dealer or broker that has control of, controlled waste (referred to below for the purpose of this Code as a “waste holder”).

Waste holders are a:

waste producer – any person whose activities produce waste. This includes private sector businesses such as shops, offices, factories and tradespersons (e.g. electricians, builders, glaziers and plumbers) 

2.2 Waste holders: what your duty of care applies to
The duty of care requirements apply to household, industrial and commercial waste, also known as controlled waste.

Waste is any substance or object that the holder discards, intends to discard or is required to discard. The meaning of “discard” applies to “disposal” and “recovery” operations and processes and can be intentional or unintentional on the part of the holder. 

Disposal” is any operation which is not recovery (even where the operation has a secondary consequence of reclaiming substances or energy). An example is landfill

2.4 Waste holders: how long your duty of care lasts
You have a responsibility to take all reasonable steps to ensure that when you transfer waste to another waste holder that the waste is managed correctly throughout its complete journey to disposal or recovery.

You can do this by:

checking the next waste holder is authorised to take the waste - see section 3.4 for examples of authorisation

asking the next waste holder where they are going to take the waste, and checking that the intended destination is authorised to accept that waste

carrying out more detailed checks if you suspect the waste is not being handled in line with the duty of care, e.g. requesting evidence that your waste has arrived at the intended destination and that it has been accurately described

If you receive waste you should cooperate with the previous waste holders in any measures that they are taking to comply with their duty of care. This includes supplying evidence that previous holders may need to ascertain that their waste has reached its end of waste location.

Each holder in the waste chain shares the duty of care obligations if you:

use a waste dealer or broker, you each have a responsibility to comply with your duty of care obligations and to ensure that the waste is only transferred to an authorised person or establishment

transfer waste to a waste treatment facility for preliminary treatment, you will generally still be responsible for the complete recovery or disposal operation (in accordance with Article 15(2) of the Waste Framework Directive)

carry out a waste operation that changes the nature or composition of the waste, you are regarded as a producer of the waste when it leaves your site

3. Waste holders: waste duty of care requirements
You must take all reasonable steps to:

prevent unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste (see section 3.1)
prevent a breach (failure) by any other person to meet the requirement to have an environmental permit, or a breach of a permit condition (see section 3.2)

prevent the escape of waste from your control (see section 3.3)

ensure that any person you transfer the waste to has the correct authorisation (see section 3.4)

provide an accurate description of the waste when it is transferred to another person (see sections 3.5 and 3.6)

Failure to comply with the duty of care requirements is a criminal offence and could lead to prosecution.

Enzo Sauro to Chris Jones 

ask the local authority thay have had them long enough if thay would have dealt with the condition when thay should have we would not be in this situation. And for the record the reason why we were stoped was for starting the foundation. We have full authority to remove the spoil.

Simon Thomas to Enzo Sauro 

what an absolute bag of lies. You do not have permission to remove the spoil heap. In fact the council recently confirmed this with me. As for the chemical testing that you have previously submitted to the council, it only consistently tests to 50 cm deep. You want to remove up to 7 metres deep so you should test consistently to that depth. If you have submitted chemical testing that unambiguously confirms that there is no contamination then please do share.

Enzo Sauro to Simon Thomas 

you seem to know a lot and in fact you know nothing. I stick to my last comments and let nature take its corce.

Simon Thomas
Enzo Sauro this notice says you are in breach of condition 36 which says “Notwithstanding the submitted details, no further development shall commence on
site until an assessment of the nature and extent of contamination affecting the
application site area has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local
Planning Authority. This assessment must be carried out by or under the direction of
a suitably qualified competent person in accordance with BS10175 (2011)
'Investigation of Potentially Contaminated Sites Code of Practice' and shall assess any contamination on the site, whether or not it originates on the site. The report of the findings shall include:
(i) a desk top study to identify all previous uses at the site and potential contaminants associated with those uses and the impacts from those contaminants on land and controlled waters. The desk study shall establish a 'conceptual site model' (CSM)
which identifies and assesses all identified potential source, pathway, and receptor linkages;
(ii) an intrusive investigation to assess the extent, scale and nature of contamination which may be present, if identified as required by the desk top study;
(iii) an assessment of the potential risks to:
- human health,
- groundwater and surface waters
- adjoining land,
- property (existing or proposed) including buildings, crops, livestock, pets, woodland
and service lines and pipes,- ecological systems,
- archaeological sites and ancient monuments; and
- any other receptors identified at (i)
(iv) an appraisal of remedial options, and justification for the preferred remedial option(s).”

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