A VALE firm has been ordered to stop illegal tipping near Pershore.

Directors of Ivory Plant Hire Ltd face being sent to prison if the court injunction, obtained by Worcestershire County Council, is breached.

The council obtained the injunction to stop waste tipping at Crabbe Yard, Besford Road, Wadborough following complaints from residents that soil, rubble and plastics were being dumped on the site.

Planning officers investigated with the Environment Agency and police and, as a result, it issued enforcement and stop notices, requiring the waste to be removed and any further tipping to stop.

Simon Mallinson, the county's head of legal services, said: "So much soil and rubble and other materials have been tipped at the site some of the waste piles have collapsed through metal fencing on to the edge of the public highway and some materials have fallen into an adjacent stream."

Tipping continued and the county obtained an emergency injunction from Worcester County Court at the end of August to stop the waste tipping until a further hearing on September 15.

Company secretary John Bruce denied materials had fallen into an adjacent stream or that waste piles had collapsed through metal fencing. He said: "The yard has lawful use as a builders' yard and we are recycling materials from here and using them again within the building industry. Obviously we are going to court on September 15 to appeal against the injunction and try and get it lifted."

Mr Mallinson added: "Breaches of planning enforcement and stop notices are criminal offences that carry significant fines. If an injunction is breached it is treated as contempt of court which could lead to imprisonment. As a result of the legal action, waste tipping should now have ceased at Crabbe Yard pending further hearings."

This is the second time the county has had to use an emergency injunction to stop Ivory Plant Hire tipping illegally.

The company was accused of tipped thousands of tonnes of construction waste on land at Badger's Hill, Bishampton Bank, near Evesham earlier this year. Ivory Plant Hire denied the claims saying only top soil had been left there.

The council obtained an injunction against the company and secretary John Bruce personally to stop the tipping which was made final by a consent order which remains in force until March 2002.