A DARLINGTON skip hire company stripped of its waste permit after serious breaches of environmental regulations has confirmed it will appeal a separate allegation of flouting planning laws.

Raymond Shepherd, 58, and Albert Hill Skip Hire, were found guilty of ten charges of operating without Environment Agency permits at their Dodsworth Street and Whessoe Road bases between 2008 and 2010.

The company, also convicted of breaching a permit at Dodsworth Street in 2009 by storing non-hazardous waste on a permeable surface, was banned from operating any site as a mixed waste transfer station.

Mr Shepherd, of St Helen Auckland, County Durham, denied waste had been sorted and said neither posed a pollution risk.

The company was also served with an enforcement notice by Darlington Borough Council after an alleged breach of planning control by allowing Dodsworth Street to be used as a mixed waste transfer area with waste tipping and skip hire.

The authority today (Monday, October 15) confirmed Albert Hill Skip Hire and Mr Shepherd had appealed the decision, with a hearing to take place in The Dolphin Centre, Darlington, on Tuesday November 6.

Keith Hodgson, planning support officer, said: “The company have appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against an enforcement notice relating to an alleged breach of planning control.

“It relates to changing the use of the land from a general industrial use to that of a siu generis mixed use of waste transfer, waste tipping and skip hire.”

During a four week trial in August, Mr Shepherd, a director with the firm, told Teesside Crown Court it had received an exemption from the Environment Agency to run Whessoe Road and denied it had broken rules at Dodsworth Street, which was the scene of a huge blaze in 2010.

He said "We approached the Environment Agency and the officer suggested applying for an exemption which would get the job moving.

“I am as enthusiastic in avoiding pollution and even during the fire at Dodsworth Street, the water used to put it out went into the nearby river and there was never any sign of pollution.”