A WASTE company has been fined £60,000 after leaving inexperienced staff in charge of a Worcestershire site where hazardous materials were being disposed of.

Severn Waste Services was convicted at Redditch Magistrates Court of four charges of failing to follow the conditions of its waste management licence at the Beacon Waste site, Bonemill, Minster Road, Stourport-on-Severn. It had pleaded not guilty.

Nicholas Cole, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told magistrates yesterday that officers carried out a routine inspection of the site on Friday, April 27, and found it was being manned by a temporary member of staff.

"They found the site wasn't being manned by any permanent full-time member of staff for the company," he said.

"Instead, it was being supervised by a temporary member of staff employed through a local employment agency, who hadn't had an interview for the job prior to attending. He had no experience in the safe handling of waste materials, or experience of working at sites that dealt with them.

"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. The member of staff would not be able to comply with the site's waste management licence."

He added that although there was no evidence of environmental damage at the site, that took household waste, household chemicals, asbestos-bearing wastes, batteries and gas cylinders, the member of staff was too inexperienced to deal with any incident.

In mitigation, the company told the court it had not gained financially from the situation and had committed no previous offences.

It explained that it had had to suspend regular staff the day before and the employment agency it used had been unable to supply a trained replacement.

It added no damage had been caused by its actions.

Magistrates ordered the company to pay £15,000 on each charge and £3,804 in costs.