Waste company pays £100k after fire at site

Axil Integrated Services Ltd admitted failures after an "an intense but short-lived fire" at the Cannock Industrial Centre in September 2022

A waste management operator has paid £100,000 to a wildlife project after a fire at one of its sites.

Axil Integrated Services Ltd has admitted failures after an "an intense but short-lived fire" at the Cannock Industrial Centre in September 2022, the Environment Agency (EA) said.

Since then the EA has worked with the waste operator to agree remedial works.

Axil has offered £100,000 to the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust for their Purple Horizons Nature Recovery Project as part of the agreement.

The blaze in 2022 was caused by a chemical reaction from the heat in baled waste and rainwater, the EA said.

People living near the site of the fire previously described scenes of "absolute terror" as they fled the blaze, with debris flying over a boundary fence and near houses.

The EA said Axil had co-operated fully following the fire, submitting a full incident report and statements admitting their failures within two days and carrying out repair work.

The £100,000 was given as part of an enforcement undertaking, a civil sanction which involves a business or individual making a voluntary offer to make amends for their offending.

It is a legally binding voluntary agreement, available to the EA as an alternative sanction to prosecution or monetary penalty for dealing with certain environmental offences.

The EA said the enforcement undertaking was issued due to a breach of permit, which required Axil to store some waste under cover.

The Common Lizard is one of the native species that would benefit from the Purple Horizons Nature Recovery Project, the EA said

The money will benefit the Purple Horizons Nature Recovery Project, one of 12 such projects across England.

The project extends across 12,000 hectares and will help the area’s reptiles, birds and pollinators, the EA said.

It aims to restore and connect fragmented heathlands between Cannock Chase Special Area of Conservation and Sutton Park National Nature Reserve, to create a mosaic of heathlands, wetlands, woodlands and grasslands.

A spokesperson for the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust said: "It will link up existing protected areas, work with local landowners to deliver habitat creation and carbon storage, and is developing a plan for connecting with communities in the deprived areas of Walsall to deliver green areas where they will have the greatest health benefits."