An illegal skip site in Sheffield is among three in the UK planned to be cleared after the government stepped in to foot the bill.
In a new waste crime action plan launched by the government, M White (Skips) Ltd skip yard makes up almost half of the 48,000 tonnes of waste across the three northern illegal waste sites.
People living and working in Attercliffe have been advocating for a closure of the skip yard for over 20 years, with the real fight beginning following a fire that wiped out three nearby businesses in 2013.
Not long after, the company was fined in Sheffield Magistrates’ Court for breaching the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007.
Geoff Howarth, 53, owner of City Wholesale and neighbour of M White’s Skips, said the fire devastated their family run business, and left next to nothing of the building.
He said: “When she [my mother] saw it was completely gone, 30 something years down the drain, she just sat on the wall and that were it. Complete heart attack and ended up in the hospital.
“The following week I received a threatening letter from the council that I had to make the building safe or they’d charge them for it.”
Skips have been stacked two high along both sides of the road and pavements, blocking parking and driving away customers, and the height of the waste in the yard has reached 25ft high of mixed waste.
Mr Howarth said: “I’d come down on a daily basis and see vermin running around.”
He also said there was an occasion when a customer refused to leave their car after seeing the rodents, and customers were lost for his business.
Attempts to get courts and council to take action have been described by Mr Howarth to be like ‘headbutting a brick wall’.
Residents believe it shouldn’t be their taxes that fund the clearing of the skip site, and are frustrated that the landowner himself will not be covering costs.
In January 2025, Jamie White, owner of M White (Skips) Ltd, was found guilty of breaches of the Health and Safety Work Act and the Employers’ Liability Act.
He faced a 12-month suspended 8-month custodial sentence, 150 hours of unpaid community work, and was disqualified as a company director for 3 years. At the time, he was ordered to pay £13,280 in court fees.