A NEWPORT company has been ordered to pay over £4,000 by a court for waste materials at the former speedway site in the city.

Andrew Stephens, 29, of Caldicot Road in Rogiet, appeared before Newport Magistrates Court last Friday.

Also appearing before the court was James Howells, the managing director of the Newport company, Monex.

Both pleaded guilty to one charge of contravening the requirements of an environmental permit on or before January 24 on land at Plover Close, Newport.

The court was told that works was being undertaken on the site to strengthen the land.

Materials were being brought onto the site, where it was put through a screening machine and some was being used on the site and some taken away.

The court was told that materials once gone through the machine and into the ground were lawful.

But there wasn’t a permit for holding waste materials on the site before it had been sorted in the screening machine.

Of the materials brought onto the site before sorting, 90 per cent is described as usable materials. But it was the 10 percent of waste materials within the mix, made up of things such as soil, which was not permitted.

Stephens saw it as usable product and not waste material as it was none hazardous material but material to be put to some use.

The site was described as being once over taken by travellers and there were complaints made to the council.

The court was told that the company has been transforming it since it has taken it over, and has spent over three quarters of a million on works and £60,000 for an ecological survey.

Stephens was renting a section of the land from the company, and later was working with the company to remove waste and was in charge of the screening machine.

As soon as the company was made aware of the problem, the court was told it cooperated fully with the investigation.

Howells was fined £2,310, ordered to pay costs of £2,000 and a surcharge of £120.

Stephens was fined £1,385, ordered to pay costs of £2,000 and to pay a surcharge of £120.