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Caradon: CONNON BRIDGE PROSECUTION STATEMENT

Liskeard Magistrate’s Court today imposed fines of £35,000 on CES Ltd against five charges of breaching site permit conditions at one of Cornwall’s two main landfill sites – charges to which the company had pleaded guilty.


Cornwall County Council greatly regrets the nuisance caused to site neighbours at Connon Bridge landfill site during 2005 .

The Council would like to assure residents that a new management team is already working on the remediation of the problems, and is closely co-operating with the Environment Agency to ensure that the site is compliant with regulations as soon as possible.

It must be stressed that the problems are serious, and have built up over a long period of time so they will not be resolved quickly. It will require time, a new management regime and considerable investment to achieve compliance. The County Council has already provided £2m additional funding to help address the problems, and everything possible is already being done to limit the odour and the resulting nuisance to neighbours.

Although Cornwall County Council is the only shareholder of CES Ltd, the company was operated by an independent board of directors in accordance with the law that existed at the time. This structure was a result of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, which required local authorities to form arms-length companies to manage their waste disposal functions.

That requirement has now been repealed, and in November 2005 councillors voted to bring CES Ltd back under the County Council’s control. It was at that time the nature and scale of the operational problems became apparent to the Company’s shareholder, Cornwall County Council, and subsequently, the company under its new management, has been working hard with the Environment Agency to remedy them.