THE firm bidding to build the giant Kidderminster incinerator has been fined £60,000 after being found guilty of four offences at its Stourport waste site.

Severn Waste Services was found guilty by Redditch magistrates of failing to follow specific conditions set out in its waste management licence for the Bonemill site at Minster Road.

The case brought by the Environment Agency saw SWS fined £15,000 for each charge and ordered to pay £3,804 costs.

Prosecutor for the agency Nicholas Cole said on April 27 last year officers visited the site for a routine inspection but found it was being supervised by a temporary member of staff recruited from an employment agency.

The member of staff did not have an interview for the job prior to attending and had no experience in the safe handling of waste materials or experience of working at sites which dealt with them.

SWS officials told the court it had been forced to suspend regular staff from the site the previous day and the agency which usually supplied staff was unable to do so, and had to provide an untrained worker.

He was provided with instructions and contact numbers and, apart from a short visit from a member of the site's management, was left alone on the site.

Although the conditions at the site were generally good and there was no evidence of environmental damage, Mr Cole said the essence of the prosecution was the member of staff's lack of experience and therefore inability to control a situation or accident had one occurred.