AFTER eight fires in eight months the owners and operators of a notorious recycling plant are facing a High Court trial.

Waste4Fuel Limited has made several improvements to the site in Cornwall Drive, St Paul’s Cray, to reduce the fire risk, as instructed in a court order.

These include building a firebreak and removing an area of shredded waste.

But work on building a larger firebreak, which was due to have been completed by September 30, had not even begun when the site was inspected on October 1.

This led the Environment Agency to order Waste4Fuel and its company director Bryan Hughes to attend a High Court hearing last Wednesday to explain why it had not fully conformed to the EA’s demands.

No-one from Waste4Fuel turned up for the hearing but in a letter they agreed to the EA’s request to bring the date of the full court order trial forward.

EA’s waste team leader Jon Griffin said: “It was very disappointing director Bryan Hughes failed to appear at court to be held to account for his failure to comply with the High Court’s interim instructions.

“We are pleased however, that he has agreed to attend a full hearing quickly.

"We are determined to progress this course of action, so the court can rule on the company’s performance and the issues on this site can be brought to a conclusion for the surrounding communities as soon as possible.”

The EA served Waste4Fuel with an environmental permit suspension notice in April.

Under the terms of this notice all combustible waste had to be cleared off the site by July 15 but the date was then changed to June 10.

Combustible waste has never been fully cleared from the site so the EA took Waste4Fuel to the High Court in August to get an order to try and achieve compliance with the suspension notice.