A RECYCLING company which was fined £20,000 after being found guilty of incorrectly storing waste on its site is appealing against the convictions.

Armstrongs Environmental Services denied failing to comply with an enforcement notice and failing to comply with a condition on its environmental permit between November, 2009, and January this year.

But the company, in Chorley New Road, Horwich, was found guilty of both counts following a two-day trial at Bolton Magistrates Court.

Now Armstrongs is appealing the convictions and the case will be heard at the crown court where it is listed to be mentioned on Tuesday.

The Environment Agency, which brought the prosecution, said the waste should have been kept in sealed containers or inside a building or bay, as it could pollute water or cause a smell.

After the hearing Armstrongs chairman David Armstrong said the company had been prosecuted on a “technicality”.

During the case, the company said it had moved some of the waste to keep the peace, but claimed it was inert and not degradable.

John Wallace, Armstrongs managing director, said the company had been operating in that way for 14 years and the issue had never been raised until Environment Agency officer John McCarthy took over the role of inspecting the site in November, 2009.

In court, he also alleged Mr McCarthy had been lying about the smell, and claimed there was no odour.

District Judge Paul Carr said the area where waste was stored was not, in his view, a bay, and described it as a “very ad-hoc measure of putting containers around a space”.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We have been notified that the company is appealing the conviction and it will go to the crown court in April for a date to be set.”

Armstrongs declined to comment.