The Staffordshire Wildlife Trust has received £14,700 for its Craddock’s Moss project after the Environment Agency accepted an Enforcement Undertaking for breaches of environmental legislation.
The Staffordshire Wildlife Trust’s project received the financial boost after the Environment Agency accepted an Enforcement Undertaking (EU) offer from Swanline Print Limited.
An Enforcement Undertaking is a voluntary offer made by businesses or individuals to make amends for their offending.
Swaline Print, based in Stone, Staffordshire, is making the EU for its failure to register as a packaging producer and take steps to recover and recycle its packaging waste under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007.
An investigation into potential offences committed by Swanline Print under the packaging regulations confirmed that the company first became obligated in the 2010 registration year but failed to register until 2021.
Since then, the company has registered every year and is now compliant with the regulations.
The Environment Agency estimated that Swanline Print Limited’s avoided costs for not registering and meeting their obligation for those registration years, as a minimum of £14,659.99 which includes a penalty uplift.
The business has now made a financial contribution of £14,700 to Staffordshire Wildlife Trust to ensure that it did not financially benefit from its period of non-compliance.
Senior technical officer for the Environment Agency, Jake Richardson, said:
“Enforcement Undertakings allow businesses who fail to comply with legal requirements or pollute the environment to come into compliance or positively address and restore any harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents.
“The Environment Agency is increasingly using this method of enforcement for less serious cases to restore and improve the environment, change behaviour and improve practices of the offender.”
The company has also paid the Environment Agency’s administration, investigation and legal costs.
Craddock’s Moss
Craddock’s Moss is a lowland raised bog located to the west of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire.
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust said the peat was completely dried out and the habitat destroyed when non-native trees were planted on the bog years ago.
The habitat was destroyed for many types of insects, birds and plants and hardly any wildlife was found there, the trust said.
Most of the non-native trees have since been removed so that the bog could rewet and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust bought the bog in 2019.
