OREANDA-NEWS. December 02, 2015. A South London waste company has had its permit revoked by the Environment Agency after persistent non-compliance.

The Environment Agency has revoked Metropolitan Waste Management Limited’s environment permit following years of persistent non-compliance with permit conditions and the company were deemed not competent to continue to operate.

Metropolitan Waste Management Limited of 185 Manor Road, Erith, Kent had been considered a poor performer since 2010 and the Environment Agency had been working with the company to improve its compliance and issued an enforcement notice in December 2014, which the company did not fully comply with.

In February 2015, the Environment Agency issued Metropolitan Waste Management Limited with a ‘minded to revoke’ letter. Metropolitan Waste Management Limited responded with a list of actions with timescales to improve their compliance with their Environmental Permit. They did not complete all of their actions within their own stated timescales.

In April 2015, the Environment Agency issued Metropolitan Waste Management Limited with a revocation notice. The company appealed the notice to the Secretary of State, the Planning Inspectorate who heard the appeal on 23 September 2015. On November 19 the Planning Inspectorate concluded the appeal and upheld the revocation notice issued by the Environment Agency.

Chris Hazelton, Environment Manager, said:

Metropolitan Waste Management Limited has had many opportunities to comply with their environment permit. Permit conditions are in place to reduce the risk of pollution and to protect the environment and people’s health. We will advise companies as much as possible but we will not hesitate to take swift and decisive action against anyone who persistently breaches permit conditions. We hope this action sends a clear message to all operators that we will, where appropriate, revoke environmental permits.

Metropolitan Waste Management Limited has the right to appeal against the Planning Inspectorate’s decision.