One of the UK’s largest chicken processing companies was today ordered to pay £4,958 in fines and costs for illegally storing and disposing of hazardous waste.

The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

In April 2008 an Agency officer was carrying out a routine inspection of a poultry unit at Lyneham Farm, Uppertown, near Chippenham, when she noticed certain hazardous wastes being stored at the site.

The unit is owned and operated by Faccenda Group Ltd, the second biggest chicken processing company in Britain.

The officer found the company’s maintenance team was routinely bringing wastes from other Faccenda sites and depositing them in skips at Lyneham Farm. She told a representative of the company it was an offence to transport waste in this way.

The Agency met with Faccenda and its waste contractor and alternative practices suggested and agreed.

On October 14, 2008 the same officer visited Lyneham Farm and found a tarpaulin-covered skip containing florescent tubes.

Florescent lights are classified as hazardous waste because the inside of the tubes is coated with a toxic mercury compound.

On October 21, 2008 another Agency officer spoke to a company representative and explained that hazardous wastes should not be mixed with non-hazardous materials.

The next day Faccenda’s waste contractor turned up at a local waste transfer station with a skip from Lyneham Farm containing florescent tubes mixed with non-hazardous commercial waste.

An accompanying waste transfer note failed to acknowledge that the consignment contained hazardous material.

‘The defendant company consistently failed to comply with the advice given to it by the Environment Agency and tried to dispose of hazardous waste despite being warned on previous occasions about the illegal mixing, storing and transportation of hazardous wastes,’ said Paula Sage for the Environment Agency.

Faccenda Group Ltd, of Willow Road, Brackley, Northants was fined £2,500 by Chippenham magistrates and ordered to pay £2,458 costs after pleading guilty to two offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 of mixing hazardous waste with non-hazardous wastes on land at Lyneham Farm, Wiltshire and, on transferring the waste, failing to supply a suitable written description.