A LANDOWNER who has been dumping waste in a pit at Flowton for more than a decade has been fined �30,000.

Paul Fenton, of The Channel, Flowton, admitted breaching a Planning Enforcement Notice on ten occasions when he appeared at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard that he had been filling the 30ft-deep Flowton Tip with tyres, builders’ waste and heating oil tanks without planning permission and in breach of an enforcement notice since 2000.

Fenton, 45, has twice before been prosecuted for breaching it - in 2002 and 2007.

Earlier this year members of Flowton Parish Meeting reported that more waste was being taken onto the site.

Development Control Officers from Suffolk County Council visited the land and confirmed their suspicions.

Following his guilty plea, magistrates fined him a total of �10,000 for four offences of the bringing on of waste, a further �10,000 for four offences of retention of waste and �10,000 for breaching the stop notice.

He will also have to pay council costs of �4,712.50, and a victim surcharge of �15.

Councillor Guy McGregor, Suffolk County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning, said: “This case sends a clear message to landowners and waste handlers that environmental crime is taken seriously by the county council.

“We welcome the court’s decision to levy a substantial penalty upon the offender in this case.”