Two Sussex companies have been fined for dumping illegal waste at a golf club. A district judge called the behaviour “reckless,” handing down fines totalling £38,000 to the firms dumping waste and the owner of the course who let it happen on its land. An anonymous tip-off led the Environment Agency to the discovery of almost 700 lorry loads of waste dumped illegally by Crawley haulier Cook and Son and Bell and Sons Construction, of Faygate at Rusper Golf Club in Newdigate, near Dorking.
Investigators went to the scene at the golf course (Image: Environment Agency) Rusper Leisure, based in Worthing, had planning permission to raise part of an embankment on the driving range by two metres to catch stray golf balls. But the agreement with Mole Valley District Council was to only use clean soil. Investigators from the Environment Agency found the surface of the mound contained glass, wood, plastic, tarmac, brick, concrete and other materials.
Similar loads were also dropped around the course and nearby. Cook and Bell paid Rusper Leisure £100 a load for the tonnes of waste left on and around the greens in the second half of 2018. READ MORE: Businessman fined £15,000 in pensions probe The investigation also discovered waste used to create more embankments and stockpiled close to woods on the edge of the golf course and in the club’s car park.
Builders’ waste was mixed in with some of the soil. Waste piled high (Image: Environment Agency) Jamie Hamilton, the senior enviro.