A skip hire operator near Sittingbourne has lost its environmental permit after the Environment Agency raised repeated concerns about the way waste was being managed at a site in Stockbury.
Matthew Butler ran BR Skip Hire at Rumstead Lane, where skips were sent out to customers and returned filled with waste. The Environment Agency said Butler had handed day-to-day running of the waste transfer station to All Skips Ltd but had failed to control how the site was operated.
The agency said officers carried out frequent inspections and sent regular correspondence through 2024 and 2025. It said the waste stored at the premises was too much for the site, with some hazardous white goods posing pollution and fire risks to the business, surrounding countryside and community.
Concerns listed by the agency included poor storage of waste, a lack of fire prevention, inadequate drainage, old fridges and televisions containing harmful substances being kept with other waste, and insufficient management oversight.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service also raised concerns about the absence of water to fight a blaze and said piles of waste would have hampered firefighting efforts. BR Skip Hire failed to overturn the permit removal on appeal.
The Environment Agency said waste can no longer be managed by BR Skip Hire or All Skips at Rumstead Lane. It said the decision followed a long history of the site operating outside the rules, with problems becoming worse in recent years.