A row over rubbish left at a former football club in Sefton where an “illegal” waste facility was operating is now headed to court.
The site, at the former Formby football club, had been operating for more than a year before a planning application was lodged by operator Mersey Aggregates Ltd in August 2020.
Permission was refused a month later with Sefton Council describing the facility on greenbelt land as “inappropriate.”
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The council then served a planning enforcement notice requiring work to stop by mid-October, which it then emerged in December 2020 had not been issued correctly.
A second planning application was lodged by Mersey Aggregates in January 2021, but by this point a frustrated Formby Parish Council had already approached the Environment Agency about the problem.
The Environment Agency visited the site in February 2021 alongside Sefton Council environmental health officials and issued a notice for the company to cease and clear the site.
In a report submitted to a Sefton Council overview and scrutiny committee earlier this week, providing an update, it said the situation had now reached court after a dispute between the council and the landowner over the current state of the site.
The report said: “The enforcement notice that has been served has not been fully complied with.
“The use of the site as a waste recycling centre has ceased and the operators have left the site but have left some material behind.
“The land owners have claimed that this material was in situ previously and the land has now been returned to its previous condition.”
Sefton Council said it disputed the claims of landowner, Formby Development Partnership LLP, and the matter is now with the council’s legal department.
The council is in the process of prosecuting the company for non-compliance with the enforcement notice.
The report states: “The preliminary hearing was heard in December during which the defendant pleaded not guilty to failing to comply with the enforcement notice.
“The matter is therefore proceeding to trial in the Magistrates Court in March unless the remaining material is removed and the enforcement notice is fully complied with before that date.”
Formby Development Partnership LLP was approached for comment.
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