£400k tip clean-up cost may never be repaid

Natural Resources Wales, supported by police, is investigating the illegal tip

A £400,000 clean-up operation at an illegal waste dump is being funded by a cash-strapped council, with no guarantee it will ever recover the cost.

Flintshire council's cabinet has approved the funding of work to clear the unlicensed tip site in Riverside Way, Queensferry, of about 1,200 tonnes of waste.

The site was last month at the centre of a major fire which put nearby residents at risk.

Council officers said they would seek to recover the cost when those responsible were found, but there are no guarantees that a prosecution would be successful, nor if those behind the dumping would be able to pay.

Some councillors are now concerned the authority, which this week revealed its budget gap had grown from £38.4m to £47.5m despite significant cuts, has been left exposed to storms or unexpected events this winter.

Its contingency reserves – the money it keeps aside for unexpected costs – now sits at just £381,000.

"The only place we've got to fund that additional spend [for the tip clean-up] is the contingency reserve," corporate finance manager Gary Ferguson told the corporate resources overview and scrutiny committee.

But while officers' recommendations to councillors included a provision to recover costs through legal action, it is not certain at this stage that any money would be retrieved.

An investigation into who is responsible for the tip is being carried out by environment body Natural Resources Wales (NRW), supported by North Wales Police.

NRW said that "if any offences are identified, we will take appropriate enforcement action".

Councillor David Coggins Cogan told the committee he was concerned about the decision to dip into the council's meagre reserves.

About 1,200 tonnes of waste needs to be cleared from the unlicensed site on Riverside Way in Queensferry

He said Audit Wales - which monitors the use of public money by organisations such as councils - had "issued a significant red flag commenting on our lack of reserves".

He added: "Taking such a significant amount makes me nervous, especially as we've already had storms and there may be more."

Deputy committee chairman Jason Shallcross said: "I know we hope to reclaim some of the funding back but what can we do to stop this happening again? It sounds like tipping on an industrial scale."

Damien Hughes, corporate manager for capital and assets, assured councillors that the site was now secure.

"We are working with the police and fire service and housing officers also regularly attend the neighbouring site," he said.

"The site has been target-hardened so it's got CCTV and we've got concrete blocks," he said.

"It does form part of an NRW and police investigation and I will be linking with the police and NRW to understand the scale of fines that are available to us as an authority."