\n Roy Brett ignored repeated warnings about the number of skips and waste built up at his yard in Cressing through his company RJ Brett Contracts Ltd.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brett, of Winstree Road, Stanway wanted the Environment Agency to believe the operation was completely legitimate, but the 66-year-old didn\u2019t have an environmental permit to manage the site.\n<\/p>\n
\n Skips were stacked on top of each other at the yard in Cressing (Image: Environment Agency)\n<\/p>\n
\n After two-years, Brett and his business admitted breaches of environmental law between 2024 and 2026.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Environment Agency\u2019s case says Brett ignored written orders and face-to-face warnings to clear the compound at Lanham Green Lane.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brett claimed he \u201cdidn\u2019t do e-mails,\u201d and \u201cmissed\u201d the written instructions to remove the waste.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brett and his company have been charged with a combined eight offences (Image: Environment Agency)\n<\/p>\n
\n Investigators found Brett stored too much wood, metal, textiles and builders\u2019 rubbish in relation to the size of his yard.\n<\/p>\n
\n There was a lack of free space, with skips overflowing with more rubbish, including mattresses and soil.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lesley Robertson, enforcement team leader for the Environment Agency in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, said: \u201cRoy Brett is a director of three other skip-hire companies in Essex. It doesn\u2019t seem plausible that someone with his years of experience in the waste industry misunderstood that he didn\u2019t need an environmental permit or what low-risk activity was allowed for exemption from needing one.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBrett and his company undercut rivals by avoiding permitting and subsistence fees. They also evaded permit conditions designed to protect the environment.\n<\/p>\n
\n Roy Brett and RJ Brett Contracts Ltd will be sentenced on May 15 (Image: Environment Agency)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI would urge anyone hiring a skip, or paying someone to remove waste, to check our online register to make sure the company or individual has valid permits from the Environment Agency.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The Environment Agency told him the yard, which is located in green fields, should be undercover.\n<\/p>\n
\n Essex Fire and Rescue Service became interested in the site, and told Brett to tidy up the yard, and make sure nothing that could start a fire was brought in.\n<\/p>\n
\n Concerns about the business were first raised with the Environment Agency in the summer of 2024, and an officer was sent to investigate.\n<\/p>\n
\n They found more than a dozen skips full of waste giving off a strong smell.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brett was told he had three months to remove all of it.\n<\/p>\n
\n Officers were back at the site in the October as the situation hadn\u2019t improved.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brett was then sent a cease-and-desist letter, warning the site had to be cleaned up, or he\u2019d face prosecution.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brett was given a number of warnings in relation to the site (Image: Environment Agency)\n<\/p>\n
\n By January 2025, the deadline for the waste to be gone, almost 50 skips filled the yard, with some stacked on top of each other.\n<\/p>\n
\n Officers also saw a massive pile of wood and soil.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brett had been allowed to undertake low-risk waste disposal that didn\u2019t need a permit, known as exemptions, but the Environment Agency cancelled these when the scale of Brett\u2019s offending took hold.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brett and RJ Brett Contracts Ltd will be sentenced at Colchester Magistrates\u2019 Court on May 15, when elements of the case will also be heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roy Brett ignored repeated warnings about the number of skips and waste built up at his yard in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-520526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}