A Co Down man was this week fined £600 plus £75 court costs at Newry Magistrates' Court for non-compliance with a Planning Service Enforcement Notice.

Robert Newell of Ballynahatten Road, Kilkeel, Co Down was charged under Article 76 (a) of the Planning (NI) Order 1991 (as amended).

The Enforcement Notice required Mr Newell to lower stockpiles of sand and gravel on his site to a height of less than three metres.

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Meanwhile, a recycling firm was also fined - this time a substantial sum £15,000, plus court costs of £31 - for breaches of waste management legislation.

McAteer Recycling Ltd, of Cullion Road, Mayobridge, was found guilty and fined £7,500 on each of two charges.

Officers from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (formerly the Environment and Heritage Service) visited McAteer Recycling's Cullion Road site on 14 May 2008, where they found skips full of cardboard, household, construction and demolition and green wastes.

Skips containing a range of waste were on site during a further visit on 2 July 2008, where there was also evidence of burning.

The site had neither planning permission, nor a waste management licence or exemption.

(BMcC/KMcA)