Plaid Cymru Senedd Members are calling on the Welsh Government to intervene in illegal waste dumping if the local council and Natural Resources Wales fails to prevent it continuing.
Carrie Harper MS and Marc Jones MS have written to the Rural Resilience and Sustainability Minister Llyr Gruffydd in light of concerns raised by local residents regarding the illegal waste dumping opposite Castle Road, Coedpoeth near Wrexham.
The dumping has seen lorryloads of waste material being deposited in a field close to the village. Wrexham Council has already issued a stop notice, which was ignored, and has now issued an enforcement notice on the Cefn Mawr-based company involved in the dumping.
In a joint statement the MSs said: "As soon as we were alerted to this illegal dumping, we contacted the relevant authorities - the council and NRW. They have been unable to prevent the ongoing tipping of waste and community concerns are that the mess will be left for the local community to deal with.
"Natural Resources Wales has the power to issue on-the-spot fixed penalty notices as well as Restriction Orders. Breaching such orders can mean blocking access and confiscating equipment. Recovery of costs then takes places through the courts at a later date.
"The lack of action to prevent the ongoing tipping is disturbing. We want to see action against the land owner, the hauliers and the sites from where the waste is being collected from. Residents have also contacted NRW more than eight weeks ago to alert them to this problem and, to date, nothing has been done."
They added: "The council has told us that it is prosecuting those responsible for breaching its stop notice. We welcome that and news that it intends to have the land restored. We are concerned about the nature of the waste and what impact it may have on the River Gwenfro, which runs south of the site.
"We understand that NRW is under huge pressures given its workload but this is not acceptable. NRW have their own powers under Section 59 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to force landowners to remove unlawfully deposited waste and restore land. The powers available to NRW extend to a criminal offence for non-compliance. In light of the time this is taking, we are calling on the Welsh Government to intervene to ensure urgent action is taken to stop this illegal dumping immediately. Nobody should be above the law."
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