TWO brothers have each been fined £10,500 after pleading guilty to waste offences.

Stephen Cleworth of Bow Road, Leigh and Terence Cleworth of Derwent Road, Hindley, were also ordered to pay costs of £1000 each to the Environment Agency, which brought the prosecution.

Tim Warn, prosecuting, told Wigan Magistrates Court how the Agency visited a scrap metal business A&A Cleworth and Sons in August 2002. The officers saw household, commercial, construction and demolition waste on the site, dumped on the ground or stored in skips.

The Cleworth's site at Wilds Brickyard, Leigh Road, Hindley Green, is only registered with the Environment Agency for scrap metal recovery and the dismantling of motor vehicles. The firm is not licensed to keep or treat other waste at the site.

The investigation revealed that the waste was being kept, treated and disposed of under the instruction of Stephen Cleworth, a partner involved in the family business and the organiser of the firm's waste operations sector. Terence Cleworth is also a partner and was a driver and plant operator at Wilds Brickyard.

The waste was removed during September but when the Agency visited again on October 17 further waste had been deposited and was being stored there. Still more waste had been deposited on October 29.

The Agency again visited Wilds Brickyard in March this year and again found household, commercial, construction and demolition waste. Two days later a member of the public contacted the Agency and reported waste being burned at Wilds Brickyard. The Agency went to the site and saw that commercial and garden waste was being burned.

Stephen Cleworth was cautioned and the Fire Service put out the fire.

Mr Warn told the court how Wilds Brickyard is situated next to residential properties and how local residents have reported concerns about noise and nuisance in the past. Wigan Council had refused to give planning permission for the land to be used for storing and hiring skips in 1993.

Although A&A Cleworth and Sons has registered an exemption from the need for a waste management licence regarding its scrap metal business, the exemption does not apply to the skip site at Wilds Brickyard and would not allow for any other kind of waste storage or disposal.

The court also heard how, despite formal warnings and a Notice being issued, Stephen and Terence Cleworth continued to operate a waste transfer business without the necessary licence, showing a blatant disregard for environmental legislation.