A DEMOLITION contractor has been fined £20,000 for dumping rubble on a railway embankment near Pool-in-Wharfedale.

Environment Agency officials are hoping the high penalty will send a warning to other contractors that 'cutting corners at the expense of the environment is not an option'.

Bradford magistrates heard this week how Clive Andrew Jones - then trading as Premier Demolition on Butterfield Industrial Estate, Shipley - had a contract in early 1996 to remove material from an old mill which was being demolished in Bowling Back Lane.

But instead of taking it to an official site, around 400 tonnes of waste was dumped on the railway embankment near Arthington Lane. By illegally disposing of the rubbish, Environment Agency officials believe Jones saved an estimated £8,000.

In February 1996, an off-duty officer from the Environment Agency saw three fires had been lit on the site and an investigation began.

After a two-year wrangle Jones, who failed to turn up at court on Monday - was convicted of four offences under the 1990 Environment Protection Act and was fined the maximum £5,000 on each.

Speaking after the case, enforcement officer for the Environment Agency Paul Glasby said that an increasing number of people were being prosecuted under the Act each year.

He said: "This year alone 26 people have been prosecutedand we are committed to continue to clamp down on the illegal disposal of waste.

"The Environment Agency is pleased that the magistrates court recognises the seriousness of environmental offences and elected to award the maximum penalty of £5,000 for all four offences case."

Mr Jones is now trading under the name of Northern Developments UK Ltd, which deals with aggregate, based in offices in Shipley. A work colleague said this week that Mr Jones had been unaware that the case was taking place.

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