A. Ask the man to kindly desist
B. Shove the man in the back knocking him to the ground causing him to have a fatal heart attack
C. Stand back and watch the man spray paint over every shop for three years doing irreparable damage before arresting him
If the Policeman was actually an officer working for the British Environment Agency, the answer would be ‘C’.
Hugh O’Donnell has been paraded across the media this week for illegally dumping 70’000 cubic metres of waste over an area bigger than five football pitches, over a period of three years in Aldermaston near Reading, Berkshire.
Considering the vehicle movements necessary to tip that amount of waste, this must have been a very visual operation.
In the UK the onus is upon the waste producer to ensure that their waste is collected by a registered waste carrier (registered with the Environment Agency) and that it’s disposed of at a site specifically licensed to accept it (licensed by the Environment Agency).
The land in Aldermaston, formally a beauty spot, has been declared so badly contaminated by the Environment Agency that it must be left as it is because the money required to ameliorate the site is not available.
Either the Environment Agency didn’t know that 70’000 cubic metres of waste was being illegally tipped over three years, in which case they’re incompetent idiots and heads should role in the agency or they did know but chose to do nothing for three years in which case they’re incompetent idiots and heads should role in the agency.
As to the cost of the clean up; an authority more competent than the Environment Agency should stop at nothing with no expense spared to find out which companies chose to ignore the law and their ‘Duty of Care’ and have their waste ‘dumped cheap’. They should then make them pay for its legal disposal and land clean up.
As for Mr Hugh O’Donnell, he is guilty of nothing more than having the bollocks to rely on the inefficiency, the stupidity and incompetence of our British waste Police.
Well done Hugh O’Donnell; after his four year sentence has been cut to two for good behaviour and that time has passed, he will no doubt be back doing it again, earning lots of money in the process and considering who he’s up against, who can blame him?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8597855/Jail-for-boss-of-illegal-waste-site-the-size-of-five-football-pitches.html
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2 comments:
If Gideon spent more time reading the details rather than ranting total rubbish, he would have noticed that O'Donnell used alias names and phoney companies in order to evade detection for several years. So whilst waste may have been takne into the site, the EA and other authorities used every power available to prevent waste being taken into the site. As a government organisation that's also funded by businesses they regulate, there is a limted pot of money in order to deal with this sort of work. If you want to target someone, O'Donnell committed the crimes and is the one to blame.
If you had a million pounds and chose to store it on a pallet on the pavement outside your house; chances are it would be stolen.
Whilst the criminal is the person that took it, you share some of the blame and responsibility for creating an environment where temptation and ease of opportunity to some degree caused the crime to happen.
My comments were a ‘light the blue touch-paper’ exercise I admit however seeing an Environment Agency spokesperson saying how much waste was tipped and how long it all went on for and how bad everything is just isn’t good enough. If someone doesn’t stop it happening, it’s going to continue happening and if that someone isn’t the Environment Agency in this case – who else is going to?
As I mentioned in the post, the companies (and hauliers) who’s waste ended up in Aldermaston are also to blame – saying that they thought they were dealing with an honest operator would suggest that no-one asked for copies of Carriers Registration Certificates and/or Waste Management License or exemption details.
I thank you for your comments however and I am more than willing to admit that I’ve got this all wrong if you or anyone else can show me that three years is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to allow environmental carnage to thrive before being stopped!
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