Farmer polluted fields with contaminated compost

The Environment Agency said officers witnessed lambs chewing fragments of waste textiles on one of the illegal compost stockpiles

A farmer polluted his fields with "heavily contaminated" compost created on site.

William Clarke, of The Dales in Countesthorpe, Leicestershire, pleaded guilty to five charges, including a failure to comply with environmental permits at the nearby Soars Lodge Farm in Foston Road.

The Environment Agency (EA), which prosecuted Clarke, said his compost was inadequately produced and contaminated with plastics, metal, textiles, rubber and treated wood.

The 54-year-old was ordered to remove the waste from the site within three years when he was given a suspended prison sentence at Leicester Magistrates' Court on 12 December.

EA officers were made aware of issues at the farm after residents complained about large quantities of litter.

These complaints resulted in an audit of the composting and landspreading at the site in April 2018.

The operations were regulated by environmental permits, which allowed the composting of green waste and untreated wood.

Clarke also accepted unauthorised waste types, the agency said, including wood coated in plastic or treated with paint and preservatives.

Although Clarke declared his compost to be free of contamination, the EA said its forensic analysis found all 44 samples taken failed

An enforcement notice was served in April 2019 that required Clarke to stop accepting treated wood waste and to remove any treated wood on site, which he failed to comply with.

Clarke pleaded guilty in March to the offences which occurred between 26 April 2018 and 15 May 2020.

He was sentenced to nine weeks in prison, suspended for a year.

The EA said Clarke denied running the site and blamed his late father, David Clarke, who owned Soars Lodge Farm and was joint holder of both environmental permits with him.

Mr Clarke died during the period of the investigation and the judge found his son was in day-to-day control of the composting operations, the EA added.

The farm is the subject of a planning application to Blaby District Council for the development of a solar farm.

The clean-up must be completed by 12:00 GMT on 12 December 2027 and according to the agency, the judge ordered that the removal of waste must be completed before the development takes place on the site.

Iain Regan, EA senior environmental crime officer, said: "The defendant ignored our concerns and refused to act on the extensive advice we gave him to improve his operation, and that has resulted in these convictions."