The Planning Inspectorate has upheld a decision by the Environment Agency to withdraw a Dudley-based company’s environmental permit for the operation of a waste site in Dudley following an appeal.

Oakham Environmental Waste & Recycling Centre, which ran a skip business and waste transfer station at Oak Farm in the West Midlands, had its permit revoked by the Environment Agency in May 2013 after a series of breaches.

The firm was originally granted the permit in January 2011 but was found to be storing too much waste on site, had “no technically competent manager” and had waste tipped and stored outside in “inappropriate bunkers” and outside the permitted area, the Agency said.

It added the company failed to comply with a series of enforcement notices and its lack of action resulted in a number of waste fires.

The firm has now been ordered to remove all of the waste from the site within six weeks following the rejection of the permit appeal.

Jonathan Hall from the Environment Agency said: “We will not tolerate operators who continually breach the conditions of their permits or pose unacceptable risks to the environment.

We’re taking action against poorly performing waste sites because, in our opinion, these permit holders are not competent to operate in line with their permits and their operations pose a serious risk to the environment.”