A MAN has been fined £2,000 after admitting a waste offence committed at a farm in Leigh.

John Stafford was also ordered to pay £1,002 in costs to the Environment Agency, which brought the prosecution. He was charged with allowing the waste to be stored on his land.

Tracey Shaw, prosecuting, told Wigan magistrates that on October 2, 2002, the Agency received a report that waste was being taken to land known as Walmsley's Farm, Green Lane, Leigh, and kept there.

An officer visited the site and saw skips holding waste such as timber, tree cuttings, broken paving stones, plastic sheeting and household rubbish. The skips were marked "Isherwood's".

Ms Shaw told the court that anyone wishing to store waste must have a waste management licence issued by the Environment Agency.

The Agency contacted Stafford, who owned the land. he confirmed that another man was renting the land and using it to store skips. After a second visit to the site, the Agency contacted the owner of the skips and made it clear that storing waste without a licence was illegal.

The Agency was promised that the site would be cleared in two or three days, but when officials made further visits over the following weeks, the waste was still being stored there.

The Agency served an enforcement notice requiring the removal of the waste within 28 days, but skips full of waste were still present at the farm five months later.